What relief?

So the bushy-eyebrowed one has finally bothered to say something then.

Mr Darling stood up last week in the Commons and announced how the government's fantastically wonderful new entrepreneurs' relief demonstrates ministers' huge commitment to boosting the UK's enterprise spirit. Yeah right. Course it does.

How on earth can ministers claim they are backing entrepreneurship? It is only because of the huge outpouring of outrage from anyone with a connection to small businesses that the government has done anything. And what it has done is truly laughable.

Yes, the fact that entrepreneurs only have to pay 10% capital gains tax on the first £1 million on profits gained from a business sale is welcome for the thousands of owners of the nation's smallest firms who see their company as their pension but what about the next generation of serial entrepreneurs?

Ministers go on and on about it but so much of what they've done lately throws a massive barrier in the path of those attempting to become the large company bosses of tomorrow.

The limits of the new relief means most investors won't qualify and entrepreneurs who were thinking about selling up and starting again with the aim of being bigger and better and employing even more staff will now be considering staying were they are so they remain eligible for the 10% rate.

To make matters even worse, while the intention of the original reforms was to simplify the CGT regime, the changes have actually made it more complicated.

If Alistair Darling and co think the row is over they had better think again. The farce of the past three months has been hugely damaging to the relationship between the government and small businesses – not that it was great in the first place – and entrepreneurs and the groups that represent them will continue to make their displeasure known.

Darling said last week that "more measures to boost enterprise" are to come in future budgets, the next taking place on March 12 as the Treasury announced on Thursday. Call me sceptical but at the moment I'm not convinced. However, if Darling doesn't unveil some proper, long term and widely beneficial plans for the engine room of the UK economy, Labour's reputation among the business community may never be a positive one again.