THE headlines in today’s papers take a universally dim view of the budget and predictably, there has been plenty of comment about Labour returning to its old instincts of taxing the rich to raise revenue. I'm not wholly convinced this is about a return to some kind of "class war" as some are suggesting.

I was listening to Radio Five this morning and there were plenty of callers who were splenetic over the new tax rate for those earning more than £150,000, particularly from people who thought it would unfairly penalise entrepreneurs.

I can’t imagine that this was Alistair Darling’s intended target and wonder if he was actually trying to tap into the public disquiet over the high salaries being paid in the public sector, which have been dominating the headlines recently - particularly town hall fat cats.

If that was the intention, it wasn’t terribly well spun and Labour activists facing the grim job of trying to canvass support ahead of the June county council election have not been given terribly much to sell to sceptical voters on the doorstep.

My colleague Trevor Sturgess, the KMG’s business editor, has been speaking to Jonathan Neame of Kent brewers Shepherd Neame about the alcohol duty increase, which he predicts will lead to more pub closures in a sector already badly hit by the recession.

You can read his story here

I see the Kent Conservatives have given their website a makeover, something I suspect relates to their preparations for the forthcoming county council and European elections in June.

It’s interesting to see that the home page gives pride of place to the recent speech by arch Euro-sceptic Conservative South East MEP Daniel Hannan, in which he launched a devastating critique on Gordon Brown’s premiership.

It became an Internet phenomenon and has now been viewed more than a million times. Although I don’t think the Conservatives have much to fear from UKIP at the elections, perhaps the party is staking its claim to be just as Euro-sceptic. It will be interesting to see just how much more the political parties turn to the Internet when the campaign gets fully underway next week.

The site also features the customary political blog roll but for reasons I cannot fathom, I am not on it.

Meanwhile, I see that KCC Conservative leader Paul Carter is suspending his official blog during the campaign because of the rules about council publicity during the “purdah” period. I don’t know whether there are plans for a substitute “political” blog but I hope so.