George Osborne is proud of his reputation as the Conservatives’ pre-eminent political strategist, so it will have been painful for him to admit that he mishandled the politics of the Budget – the event that precipitated the “omnishambles”. In today’s Mail on Sunday, he concedes that the decision to abolish the 50p tax rate overshadowed the increase in the personal allowance: “The way the Budget was presented meant this message (helping low-earners) wasn’t heard. I take responsibility for that.”
But as Douglas Alexander argued on The Andrew Marr Show, the problem with the Budget wasn’t (or wasn’t only) one of style but one of substance. It was impossible for Osborne to deliver a Budget that cut taxes for the top one per cent of earners without this tarnishing every other measure. As apologies go, then, the Chancellor’s is a very limited one. Nor will he accept that his excessive austerity measures bear any responsibility for the double-dip. Appearing on the Marr show this morning, he repeated the familiar mantra that the eurozone crisis and the 2008 financial crisis were wholly to blame.
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