This is not a soak-the-rich budget, and the portion of it which would actually tax the rich hard will raise just over a billion in revenue – that’s against a £650 bn borrowing spree.
This is an attempt to sweeten the deal for the sort of people who trade on the politics of envy – it’s a mad budget, and deserves to be roundly condemned by every tory blog for the real reasons.
But let’s not concentrate on the 50% tax at all- let’s concentrate on the torrent of borrowing which will see a debt ratio at 79% of GDP – best case scenario.
Alastair Darling has just signed off on Labour’s suicide note, but the BBC’s sock puppet Nick Robinson is reporting this like it’s a great budget. Delightfully, he was swiftly disabused of that notion by Stephanie Flanders, the rather good economics editor at the beeb. it may be politically good to affect a soaking of the rich, but it’s pisspoor economics, and she as much as said so.
In the House, Cameron gave his best ever Commons performance in response; there will be a negligible bounce from this budget, but it may be the last hand they get to play.
