YOU can tell there is a general election not far off.

Chancellor George Osborne laced his autumn statement with so many sweeteners there must be a risk of a national epidemic of tooth decay.

Some of them will, admittedly, be very welcome.

One of the headlines yesterday was changes to stamp duty.

These won't make much difference to many first time buyers. Stamp duty didn't apply to homes costing less than £100,000 anyway.

But there could well be significant savings for those seeking to buy homes worth between £100,000 and £1 million - which is most home-buyers. In an additional boost to the housing market, those annoying step jumps in stamp duty that used to force sellers to peg their asking price at just below £250,000 or £500,000 have been ironed out.

Other headline-grabbing moves included the chancellor's announcement of £2 billion extra every year until 2020 for the NHS, the freezing of fuel duty and - in a move widely trailed earlier in the week - details of 84 roads projects which will benefit from £15 billion of investment.

These do not include dualling York's outer ring road - but they do include significant improvements to the A1.

There will also be £2 billion for flood defences, more support for small businesses and extra support for exporters.

There were some less welcome announcements. Welfare spending will be £1 billion less than was forecast in March - and the two-year freeze on working-age benefits announced in October was confirmed.

The real elephant in the room, however, was the national debt. That will actually rise as a proportion of GDP next year - and the annual budget deficit is not coming down as fast as the chancellor promised it would.

The implication is obvious, even if the chancellor wasn't exactly spelling it out yesterday.

There are sweeteners today - but after next year's election, we can expect more pain.