British politics is back to square one. Alistair Darling’s Pre-Budget Report was as much about closing the month of election frenzy as it was about looking forward to the next three years.

As George Osborne said, it was an electioneering budget without an election.

What can Mr Darling have altered since a November election was ruled out on Saturday? Perhaps a spending sweetener or another 1p off income tax, on top of the 2p cut for next April already announced, but nothing much else. It made electoral sense for Mr Darling to steal many of the Tories’ clothes: big changes to inheritance tax; increasing the tax on nondomiciled workers; and shifting air duty from passengers to flights.

With the added twist of spending an artificially conjured up £2 billion on more for schools and hospitals rather than on tax cuts for the wealthiest, you almost expected Gordon Brown to head off to Buckingham Palace to ask for an election.

With no election, however, it all seems a bit strange. The Tories can crow over Labour having stolen their ideas but the reality is that they will have to go back to the drawing board on their tax and spending policies. Mr Osborne’s grand coup lasted eight days, although it has boosted his reputation.

Mr Darling’s statement was in the style of Gordon Brown, with a blizzard of figures, most of which are virtually meaningless because they are not a comparable basis. As always, you have to look at the accompanying Treasury documents. These show, first, why it is “very unlikely” that there will be a general election next year with growth expected to slow from now, before being forecast to pick up again in 2009 and 2010 (it had better). Secondly, the fiscal outlook remains very tight with slower activity hitting tax receipts, while spending continues to rise, boosting borrowing by £4 billion this year and £6 billion next year.

Public spending, especially on schools, will grow by slightly more than previously announced, adding up to £2.5 billion more next year than set out in the March Budget, and health spending will still rise by 4 per cent in real terms in future.

Nevertheless, overall spending growth of 2.1 per cent in real terms up to 2011 is less than half the recent rate. This implies tight squeezes on some budgets and pressure on council taxes, as the Local Government Association complained. As often happens when the economy slows, the tax burden in the short term will be less than expected, but the trend is still clearly upwards.

The key question is how the extra money will be spent. Mr Darling insisted that investment would be matched with reform. While there was a lot about higher spending yesterday, however, there was very little about reform from Mr Darling. The postponement of the election for at least 18 months gives Mr Brown no excuse for not clarifying the next phase of reform, which he insists is still a priority.

That was the big gap at the Labour conference in Bournemouth. Lord Darzi’s report on the NHS gave some clues but much more needs to be said. Tory policies on public services are still only partly formed.

The battle of the non-election of autumn 2007 is now over. The parties have still to define the battleground for the election of 2009 or 2010.

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