MANY of the issues vital to business have been carefully omitted from the politicians seeking our votes on May 5.

While Labour and Conservative have produced mini business manifestoes, and spoken to the British Chambers of Commerce, key topics such as red tape, taxation and transport have been sidelined.

Despite pledges to cut it to ribbons, red tape still strangles many businesses, especially small ones.

And business is desperately worried that, if Labour wins a third term, Chancellor Gordon Brown, who is has been promised job security by Tony Blair, will introduce swingeing increases in business taxation.

Hikes in national insurance contributions followed the Government’s last election victory and employers are naturally fearful that the same could happen again.

Business is being forced to accept tight margins as well as a raft of social measures that are exerting real pressure on the bottom line.

The last thing firms want is a hike in overheads that may make them even more uncompetitive against overseas rivals without similar costs.

The Tories upset the CBI by focusing on the immigration issue. Many employers rely on the skills that only overseas workers seem to provide.

There are a number of Kent firms that have to turn to Eastern Europe for skilled engineers, for example.

Farming and horticulture already rely on immigrant labour to pick their crops every summer. Managed migration is fine, but the skills of would-be immigrants must be properly assessed so that we do not turn away people who will be vital to our economic prosperity.

Traffic congestion is the number one issue for almost every employer and employee. It costs business billions every year. Haulage firms factor in the cost of delays to their operations.

There can hardly be any employee who has not been delayed on the way to work, whether they have travelled by car or public transport. Only the cyclist or walker can claim to be unaffected.

The political parties have been reluctant to discuss transport because they know it is virtually unsolvable without radical solutions and huge investment.

They also know that any such solutions will cut across environmental concerns. So, like ostriches, they prefer to ignore it.

The trouble is, it will not go away – and the problem is certain to get worse. Bold measures are needed, but the political parties know they risk upsetting just about everyone.

Far easier to brand the other lot liars and blackguards than to hatch a credible transport policy.