“It shows that if you shout loud enough and long enough, the chancellor will hear.” That was Miles Templeman’s verdict on Gordon Brown’s announcement of a 2p cut in the corporation tax rate from April next year.

The director-general of the Institute of Directors had good reason to welcome news of the cut from 30p to 28p from April next year. The IoD had called for exactly that reduction. But his delight was shared by other business leaders who had been campaigning equally hard to restore Britain’s tax competitiveness.