It’s one of Westminster’s favourite cliches that a budget that looks good the day it is delivered usually falls apart by the end of the week. George Osborne’s CSR lasted about four hours. That was how long it took the Institute for Fiscal Studies, to contradict the central claim that the deficit reduction plan was progressive and shared the burden equally across all income groups. It clearly wasn’t. It didn’t take a genius to work this out since most of the cuts announced last week hit people on benefits, who are by definition the lowest income group.
Actually, the unfairness of the spending review isn’t really much of a political worry for the Tories. They think, and there is ample polling evidence to confirm this, that the British people now have much less sympathy for those at the bottom of the heap than has been the case in the past. All those press stories of families receiving £95,000 in benefits, plus the fact the welfare budget has risen by 45% in the last ten years, has made us much less soft-hearted as a nation. The latest YouGov/Sun poll confirms this, indicating that nearly 60% believe the welfare cuts were “unavoidable”.
