Andover MP Sir George Young believes the seating arrangements during the budget debate give a good clue to which departments have got the best deal out of the Chancellor.

"Before the Chancellor got up to deliver his budget statement, I looked to see who was sitting near him," said Sir George .

"This can give a clue to the content of the Budget.

"The Health Secretary was very close indeed - no surprises there, as he was tipped to be a big winner.

"But what was the Home Secretary doing next to the PM? And where was the education Secretary?

"David Blunkett was not a big winner, but in view of reports in today's papers of a rift between him and the Chancellor, he was on parade to show they were good friends.

"And the Home Secretary nodded and smiled at all the right places. The Education Secretary was almost at the other end of the bench - perhaps she is not going to get as much as she thinks she needs for education, and the contrast between the treatment for health and that for education is going to make life difficult for her."

The speech itself, Sir George says, was delivered confidently and was well constructed.

He says that for a chancellor to make economic plans on the assumption that the UK economy will not become a victim of a recession over the next decade is 'bold'.

"He assumes that the golden rules he has adopted have removed any prospect of recession - domestic or apparently worldwide," said Sir George.

"I hope he is right, but it must be the case that if there is a slowdown in the pace of growth of the economies we sell in to, that our domestic economy will be affected. We have had sustainable growth for so long we have grown to believe it can never come to an end."

The Chancellor's love of micro-managing the economy through a series of complicated measures could also cause a backlash from those who would like to see a less complicated system.

"As I listened to the new tax credit schemes for pensioners and married couples caring for children, I wondered how many of my constituents would cope with the forms necessary to complete them," said the MP.

The biggest winner from the budget was the funding for the NHS but if it fails to deliver then there will be growing interest in alternative methods of delivery health care, Sir George added.

In his reply, Iain Duncan Smith criticised the raising of taxes to pour money into an unreformed NHS.

"The next general election looks as if it will be fought on the NHS," concluded Sir George.