The PBR will be on 9 December. 

With the 2010 Budget offering little scope for anything but the skeleton Finance Bill which precedes the dissolution of parliament for an election, it remains to be seen what the government will propose next month in what must surely be its last opportunity for a parting shot before the self appointed great and the good disappear into obscurity, along with their resettlement allowances and ill gotten property portfolios.

When it comes to predicting the headlines, some might go for the sheer lunacy of a unilateral Tobin tax, but this seems unlikely given that one, or more, current ministers must surely be busying themselves in lining up a cushy, non-exec post with a bank.

No, given the precedent set earlier this year for tax policy to be grounded in political dogma more than economic reality, capital taxes would seem now to be the prime target.  To which end, a hike in the CGT rate to 25% could be seen as a vote winner.  In a similar vein, how about the abolition of IHT business and agricultural property reliefs or, better still, the abolition of the entire IHT code  in favour of the reintroduction of CTT ?