How remiss of us. We forgot to remind you of when the Chancellor will actually deliver his pièce de résistance. Mr Osborne will get up at 12:30 GMT, and will probably be on his feet for about an hour.

Last night, on the BBC's Newsnight programme, senior Conservative MP and former chancellor, Ken Clarke, said the UK would now be in a "bad way" if the coalition had pushed ahead with his colleague George Osborne's original plan to eradicate the deficit by the general election. Mr Clarke also told the programme that the Tories shouldn't "shut out" the prospect of tax rises.

The government's Funding for Lending scheme (FLS) is being extended for another year, to the end of January 2016, it was announced last night. FLS was launched in the middle of 2012 with the aim of providing cheap funds for banks, in the hope that this would boost their own lending to businesses and people. The main effect was to stoke up mortgage lending and the property market, though the scheme has since been refocused on business lending. It will now be only for lending to small and medium sized enterprises (that's what SMEs are).

Ian Pollock
Business reporter, BBC News

Good morning from me too. If you want to share your thoughts with us we may even publish some of them. Get in contact at bizlivepage@bbc.co.uk or by tweeting @bbcbusiness.

Joe Miller
Business Reporter

Good morning, and welcome to our Autumn Statement special. We'll be here until 18:00 GMT, bringing you live coverage, analysis and expert comment on the Chancellor's final set piece before the general election. The consensus seems to be that the kitty is empty, but nonetheless, we are expecting a raft of new measures from Mr Osborne.