Tax rises would have been better than an attack on the less well off

HOW did the Government manage to bring in a budget of such fundamental unfairness? How was it possible to get it so badly wrong that the authority of government itself has been perhaps fatally undermined?

They forgot one simple rule. There are three things finance ministers can do in a crisis. It’s always been true, and it applies to finance ministers everywhere. Their three weapons to deal with an emergency and protect the economy are: cut spending, increase borrowing, raise taxes.

Usually, the solution to an economic crisis — or at least the best way to manage one — will be found through a combination of those three measures.