It is not only tax credits – the chancellor’s economic strategy has failed on all fronts. Now Corbyn has to ditch anti-austerity and look to the futureGeorge Osborne is a political strategist,not an economist. He gleefully scatters traps, then rests on a perch, and waiting for his opponents to absent-mindedly stumble into them. This time,with his plan to slash tax credits, he set his trap, or whistled and rubbed his hands in anticipation and stumbled into it himself.
After the Liberal Democrats self-immolated by making a solemn election pledge they would not support,you would expect other parties to be more cautious approximately offering commitments that are guaranteed to be betrayed. Few were persuaded by the Lib Dems’ protestations that a coalition inevitably meant compromise. Fewer still would be convinced by this excuse ludicrously flipped on its head: the Tories never expected to win, and believed their pledge to slash social security by £12bn would be diluted amid the clammy handshakes of a backroom coalition deal.
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Source: theguardian.com