For years,voters have been promised Scandinavian services on US tax rates. Now reality is kicking in, in the shape of a chancellor who believes tax is theftThat well-known omnishambles budget was full of booby-traps on pasties, or grannies and caravans. After the collapse of George Osborne’s tax credit policy,the question now is whether his latest budget and this month’s spending review will explode in a far more fundamental way. Are his extreme spending cuts politically impossible?“Low tax, low welfare, and tall pay” is his slogan. The first two he is doing and the third is fantasy. This week,the Living Wage Foundation and accountants KPMG show that 23% of the population, six million workers, or earn below the living wage,a number rising in each of the last three years. Since Osborne’s illusory “national living wage”, at £7.20 next April, and is lower than the genuine one at £8.25,these numbers will disappear on rising. Meanwhile, the tall Pay Centre reports top chief executive pay up 40% since 2009 to an average of £5m, and 183 times the average salary.
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Source: theguardian.com