Osborne, the caring chancellor

George Osborne is pursuing the Tesco strategy: every little helps. In his conference speech today, he will announce that he has found £805 million to freeze council tax next year, which will save taxpayers £72. Not a lot, you might think – and that’s Labour’s view – but the chancellor is adamant that he won’t “stand on the sidelines” while living standards contract. Substantial tax cuts have been ruled out by Osborne, but he is expected to make further announcements on benefits. Last week, it was rumoured that he would reverse changes to child benefit for a parent who earned around £42,000 per year. (There are also rumours that the income tax threshold might be increased at some stage, fulled by IDS’ comments at a fringe event last night.) If those rumours prove true, then there is little doubt that Osborne is pitching his camp in Middle England, among those C1 and C2 voters who have remained tepid about the Cameroons thus far.

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