Not a peep from bosses as Osborne sticks the knife in - again

On business rates, corporation tax, insurance premium tax and much more, the chancellor is far from being British firms' champion. So where's the criticism?

George Osborne's newly acquired devotion to taxing sugar was a calculated distraction from the pain of transforming the annual deficit into a surplus over the next five years. His meddling in education policy and 100m support for the homeless were likewise smoke bombs thrown to divert attention from his adding another 4.6bn of disability benefit cuts to the huge welfare reductions needed to create a budget surplus in 2020.

The business community supports his mission and backs almost without question the 12bn of welfare cuts, pay restraint in the public sector and generous tax breaks for the better-off that allow Osborne to make up the numbers. It cares little that the 4.6bn of personal independent payment cuts were abandoned. It knows there is plenty of time to find an alternative.

These measures would be regarded as anti-business if any Labour chancellor thought of following the same path

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