Nick Clegg is eviscerated by this morning’s press. The Independent,
The FT and The Guardian gleefully report that the influential IFS has decreed the Budget
(supposedly a model of fairness according to Clegg) to be regressive, that there is discontent fomenting on the Lib Dem benches and that the latest polls place Lib Dem support at 12 percent.
None of this is news. The IFS is reiterating what it argued on Budget day: Osborne’s measures will hit the poorest in 2014-15. That is still some way off and action can be taken to lessen their impact. Besides, the coalition should have delivered its promise to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000 by 20-14-25. Also, UK PLC owns enormous shareholdings in two potentially very profitable banks; at some stage they will yield dividends for the taxpayer, Clegg should insist that the windfall is spent in the cause of fairness.
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