The coalition budget...

There has been a lot said about this emergency budget, suggestions that it has been over-egged to blunt whatever nasty medicine George Osborne may be about to pour down our throats now seem unlikely, the truth is that in order to slash Britains £155bn deficit it has to be as tough as they promised it would.

The most controversial measure is likely to be a shake-up of the public sector pension pot, requiring more cash input from the recipient. This will initiate strikes. Hard on the heels of the pension review will be welfare cuts and almost certainly an end to child tax credits for the middle classes. We'll probably see an increase in VAT and capital gains tax, and holiday flights may attract a levy. On the flip side the income tax allowance will be raised from £6.475 to £7,475 taking a million people out of the income tax threshold and there will be a two year freeze on council tax.

I for one am stocking up on cling peaches in the Anderson shelter...

Chancellors choice cuts

As George Osbourne, our shiny new Chancellor gears up for his first crack at a budget, suddenly all the election rhetoric spouted about who would make the biggest cuts and the widest slashes is about to take form, physical and manifest under his hand. He has to cancel the milk and find all the cash that's slipped down the back of our national couch.

And as the body politic struggles under it's huge inherited debt, we the electorate can only hope and pray, wincing through our fingers as the knife bites, that George is a clever surgeon and not a bloody butcher...

Cameron's Cuts

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has announced that there are going to be drastic cuts to public services in order to reduce the budget deficit. These cuts, he said, are going to affect every man woman and child in the country for years, if not decades to come. The Chancellor, George Osbourne plans to use the same strategy as Canada, which managed to control their massive budget deficit by hacking 20% off their spending over three years.

This will result in nothing short of a public services amputation, brutal and prolonged, but even that is better than the alternative.

Fudgit Budget

With nothing to give away, and no desire to be seen clawing cash from the pockets of people about to vote whether they get another ride on the gravy train, the Labour budget was always going to conservative, with a small 'c'.

This was merely a paper shuffling exercise, not a fiscal agenda, just a 'fudgit budget'.