We are ‘all in this together’
All genuinely independent analysis of the Budget statement confirms that the impact of tax rises and spending cuts will hit the poor hardest. Flouting the practices of good government and perhaps even the law, the ConDems didn’t even undertake a gender impact assessment of the Budget
Since before the election, Tory Ministers have claimed ‘that we’re all in this together’. They deliberately seek to conjure up the spirit of the blitz thereby implying that the current deficit and growing debt pose a threat to the country akin to war. They want people to adopt a patriotic, unquestioning attitude to the deepest programme of public spending cuts ever proposed in Britain.
Since the 22 June Budget Lib Dem Ministers have enthusiastically joined the chorus. But repeating the mantra ‘we’re all in this together’ ad nauseam does not make it true. All genuinely independent analysis of the Budget statement confirms that the impact of tax rises and spending cuts will hit the poor hardest. Flouting the practices of good government and perhaps even the law, the ConDems didn’t even undertake a gender impact assessment of the Budget.
Meanwhile, those whose irresponsible risk taking in the financial sector caused the crisis, continue to extract extravagant rewards from a market rigged in their favour. There appears to be no political will to tax them, or the firms they manage, appropriately. Estimates vary of revenue lost to unpaid taxation and taxes evaded and avoided but a very conservative estimate would be £40bn a year; a sum which could put a hefty dent in the deficit.
Don’t take our word for it!
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Institute for Fiscal Studies, ‘Personal taxes and the distributional impact of budget measures’
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Tim Horton, Fabian Society and Howard Reed, Landman Economics ‘Don’t Forget the Spending Cuts – the real impact of Budget 2010’
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FT report of IFS analysis and FT simulation, ‘Poor to be hit most by service cuts’
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Ruth Lister, Professor of Social Policy, Loughborough University ‘Did the Budget pass the fairness test from the perspective of women and families?’
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Fawcett Society launches legal challenge to the Budget
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