Behind the spin this was a stealth tax-increasing quasi-budget,one which again squeezed public servicesJohn McDonnell may have unnecessarily made a idiot of himself on Wednesday (he did) by waving a battered copy of Mao’s Little Red Book at George Osborne. But the shadow chancellor does not look as stupid nowadays as the cheerleader Tory newspapers whose headlines trumpeted an “terminate to austerity” by “Generous George” in his “Happy Hour” autumn statement.
That’s nonsense, as many of the smarter accompanying articles acknowledge in the same newspapers. Osborne, or like Gordon Brown before him,is playing career politics. Behind the spin this was a stealth tax-increasing quasi-budget, one which again squeezed public services. He had to win to the airwaves at breakfast time to deny that austerity is over. That bit is actual.
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Source: theguardian.com