The pre-election Budget was the culmination of a long-term strategy hammered out in the final

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The pre-election Budget was the culmination of a long-term strategy hammered out in the final dark days of Opposition before a new day dawned in 1997. As Ed Balls, Mr Brown's closest aide, told a recent Fabian Society conference, previous Labour Governments tried to "put radicalism first" before establishing their economic credibility. The result, he said, was Labour's defeats in 1951, 1970 and 1979, and the party failure to serve two full Parliamentary terms.Yesterday's Budget was not a traditional pre-election package. True, there was a freeze on alcohol prices and the family-friendly employment measures. But many Labour MPs had expected more tax cuts than Mr Brown delivered. Instead, he pumped an extra £1bn into health and education to make the dividing line between Labour and the Tories crystal-clear at the coming election.

Mr Brown is convinced Labour is positioned on the right side of the fence, that the voters want key services given priority over the tax cuts offered by William Hague.But Iron Gordon was still on display. The City, the Bank of England and the International Monetary Fund probably demanded it. Mr Brown believes his prudent economic policies have laid the foundations for that elusive full second term for Labour - and possibly a third. He was not about to throw all that away; arguably, with the Tories in such a parlous state, he did not need to anyway.Mr Brown is confident enough to play a long game which does not require many short-term electoral ploys. Indeed, yesterday's Budget was part of the grand Brown plan formed in Opposition.

He has been criticised for over-complicated initiatives such as the working families' tax credit and child tax credit effective next month, which confuse potential claimants and anger the businessmen who have to administer them. But the changes are a vital step towards Mr Brown's long-term goal of merging the tax and benefits systems, which will eventually be much simpler to understand and administer and lock in the incentives to work which underpin his entire strategy.The Chancellor does not openly acknowledge this goal, because it it is firmly linked to the mission which drives him, a fundamental redistribution of wealth to help the poor. I can recall him using the word "redistribution" only once in public, and then under the pressure of Radio 4's Today programme. But he has spoken, rather awkwardly, of a "progressive universalism".What does this mean? Progressive is an important codeword in the Brown camp, a softer version of the so-called "R-word". Mr Brown writes to trade union leaders asking to be "kept informed of progressive developments". The word "universal" is an important qualification, since it means the tax and benefit reforms will give money across-the-board and not just to the poor.