Well, the coalition may say its budget is progressive, but the experts seem to disagree. I've given a fuller account of the Institute for Fiscal Studies verdict here, setting out the details as well as the caveats. The full set of IFS charts are available here, but charts 2 and 3 – which we've derived from one of their more striking ones – are worth examining in a little more detail.
The seeming contrast between Alistair Darling's raid on the rich and George Osborne's squeeze on the poor will make deeply uncomfortable reading for many a Liberal Democrat. Nick Clegg floundered badly on the radio this morning as John Humphrys put it to him that the budget could not be described as anything other than regressive when it clobbered the poor more than anyone else. Clegg's only real defence was that because the coalition is also going ahead with many Labour measures, the overall effect will sting the rich as well as the poor. Whether that argument will satisfy his radical party is something that remains to be seen.
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