The Spectator

Leader: Osborne can go further

Every time George Osborne has been in serious trouble, he has produced a tax cut — and it has worked perfectly.

issue 26 March 2011

Every time George Osborne has been in serious trouble, he has produced a tax cut — and it has worked perfectly.

Osborne can go further

Every time George Osborne has been in serious trouble, he has produced a tax cut — and it has worked perfectly. He did it again in his budget, and the reception was rapturous. Herein lies a clue. It is not just that Britain is horribly overtaxed. The battle the Chancellor is now fighting is very different to the one he prepared for. Inflation stands at its most destructively high levels for 20 years, decimating the value of savings and depressing living standards. Anxiety about cuts has been supplanted by fear about the cost of living. More than anything else, the Chancellor needs to be able to say, ‘I am on your side’. Nothing does this more eloquently than a tax cut.

This also applies to companies.

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