This was Gordon Brown's personal manifesto to be British prime minister rather than a Budget for future Scottish success.

He showed great ambition for himself, but next to no ambition for Scotland.

Scotland was forgotten by a chancellor determined to boost his British credentials.

Since 1997 Scotland has benefited from the record levels of investment in public services delivered by the government.

Our economy is strong, inflation and interest rates are low and stable, more people are in employment than ever before, and prosperity and opportunity has increased for all.

Today's Budget builds on the strong and strengthening economy by investing in Scotland's future.

He could have tackled the unfair tax system. He could have made the environment a priority. He could have faced up to the pensions crisis. He could have addressed the problem of personal debt.

He's declined to do any of these. This is a legacy from which it will be difficult for him to escape.

I was disturbed to see yet another smash-and-grab raid on North Sea Oil, totalling �200m in tax, in addition to the billions taken out over the past year. This will yet again put jobs at risk.

The centre-piece of last year�s Budget, a �200 payment to help pensioners with council tax bills, has been quietly abolished.

Perhaps the executive can give us an undertaking to use the additional sums coming north to re-introduce it up here, ensuring that none of our pensioners will suffer.

The chancellor has made a small effort to do a little about greening the economy, but this is still very much a brown budget, not a green budget.

The �40 extra on the big gas guzzlers is hardly going to prevent their use, although it is at least some incentive in the right direction to reduce charges for the most efficient vehicles.

A new energy and environment institute is interesting, and Scotland would be an ideal place to locate it, but it can't be an excuse for navel gazing."

Scotland could be a world leader in renewable energy with the right kind of leadership from government.

At long last the chancellor appears to be waking up to the enormous threat posed by climate change, and is taking some steps to put us in a better position to act.

However, the measures announced today are still insufficient.

Making urban owners of big gas-guzzlers pay an extra �40 a year, about the equivalent of a cappuccino a month, is unlikely to encourage them to drive greener cars.

The chancellor will be praised by distillers for taking another welcome step towards delivering a fairer alcohol duty regime in the UK.

Today he has again narrowed the duty gap within the alcoholic drinks market, a progressive move supporting our industry's competitiveness and productivity.

This was a predictable Budget which did nothing to simplify the tax regime so businesses are in for another heavy Finance Bill.

He talked about global competition but did nothing to ease the burden for businesses, and no doubt there will be more anti-avoidance measures hidden away in the 200-plus pages of Budget press releases.

The extension of the research and development tax relief and the focus on enterprise is certainly welcome but, as usual, the chancellor has left a sting in the tail in the small print.

The STUC welcomes the Budget's focus on many of the key priorities we had raised in our Budget submission such as equal pay, R&D, skills and rebalancing trade with emerging economies.

The measures announced will assist Scotland and the UK to compete on the basis of quality, high skills and innovation.

However, we are concerned about the chancellor's aspirations for public sector efficiency.

Having a chancellor who remains 'vigilant' on oil prices is not enough.

We believe that the current tax regime for North Sea activity is not sustainable.

The UK is a mature, high-cost oil and gas province which must compete for investment from other more attractive exploration and development opportunities around the globe.

Scotland is about to take a huge step forward in public health by ending smoking in all enclosed public places.

This positive step forward is undermined by a lack of action in today's Budget.

The chancellor's decision to not even raise the price of cigarettes by the rate of inflation shows he's out of step with public feeling in Scotland, which wants to reduce the harm caused by smoking.

It seems that the chancellor's train didn't stop at the station marked 'business' this year.

Whilst he made many comments about worthy endeavours on social causes, we're disappointed that he has again passed up the opportunity to enable enterprise to flourish, despite once again saying it was a key priority.

I think it is right that we should be educating people at the careers level to cultivate an interest in enterprise but sending young people overseas is almost an admission that we can't adequately educate and train young business people in this country.

If this is the case we should be investing in tackling the underlying problem of why we can't train them. Additional funding should be given to UK universities, such as Napier, who are cultivating entrepreneurship.

We should also be looking at the infrastructure that supports business.

Why not give more assistance with heating costs, after huge hikes in energy bills?