A radical, reforming Budget? No – it was tax-and-spin as usual

Gordon Brown’s 11th and final Budget was a masterpiece of spin and obfuscation, with his headline-grabbing reductions in the basic rate of income tax and corporation tax more than made up for by a series of stealth tax raids. On that point, my friends and I are in complete agreement. But for the first time since I began writing about the British economy, some of the economists and think-tankers I most respect have broken ranks with the rest of the Chancellor’s critics.

To many free-market policy wonks, the fact that Brown has dared to break a central taboo of modern British politics by cutting direct tax rates easily makes up for the odd stealth tax. They also applaud what they see as a move towards flatter and simpler taxes. And it would indeed be absurd to dismiss this Budget as unsound in its entirety.

Yet I cannot agree that it should therefore be welcomed.