From the howls that are going up from business, one would think Alistair Darling was taking sweets out of the mouths of babies. If so, they are big and noisy babies. But howls are not arguments. The capital gains tax regime left by Gordon Brown was a mess. While the reform introduced in the pre-Budget report is imperfect, it is at least an improvement.

That is not what one would conclude from the clamour: the tax on disposal of business assets has gone up by 80 per cent, shriek some; a favourable tax regime should never be changed, yell others; the tax regime that encouraged us to become entrepreneurs has vanished, cry others again; we will throw our toys out of our British prams and leap into foreign ones, howl yet others. How much attention should the chancellor pay to all this? None. He should be a tough parent and ignore the crying.