What a surprise: we’re not all in this together

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The Guardian has just reported:

George Osborne's claims that his spending cuts are fair have begun to unravel after the country's leading tax and spend thinktank revealed the poorest will be hit harder than the better off.

In its analysis of the chancellor's spending review, the Institute for Fiscal Studies described the public spending cuts as the deepest since the second world war and said welfare benefits would suffer the biggest squeeze since the 1970s.

As some of us have said consistently.

So much for “we’re all in this together”.

That’s not true. George Osborne never intended it to be true. Nick Clegg never intended it to be true. It is not true. And that's exactly what they wanted to happen.

As the IFS said:

"The tax and benefit changes are regressive rather than progressive across most of the income distribution. And when we add in the new measures announced yesterday this is, unsurprisingly, reinforced.

"Our analysis continues to show that, with the notable exception of the richest 2%, the tax and benefit components of the fiscal consolidation are, overall, being implemented in a regressive way."

"Overall families with children seem to be the biggest losers."

And they added:

While the Treasury had claimed the overall package was "progressive" — as a result of measures previously announced by former chancellor Alistair Darling - it had ignored a third of the welfare changes.

I suspect you can guess the words that come to mind: it would not be parliamentary to use them.


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