What to make of the Budget

I went over the papers this morning for the finer details of this year’s Budget. At a glance the Chancellor seems to be on the side of drivers, families and first time buyers. However a closer look and the following emerged:

1. The elderly (over 60s) will lose up to £100 in winter fuel payments, this is despite the fact that heating bills continue to rise. The additional payments that were introduced in 2008 have been scrapped according to the Treasury. Now I think a society can be judged on its treatment of the elderly. What are the government saying? Stuff the pensioners?

2. The FirstBuy scheme which is designed to help 10,000 first time buyers purchase new build homes. But won’t this just push up the prices of these starter homes and is it really wise for people to be taking out mortgages three or four times larger than their incomes? Isn’t that what led to the near UK banking collapse which was thankfully saved by a taxpayers bailout by the previous Labour government.

And listening to the radio this morning commentators seem to be united that although the Chancellor George Osborne has got his headlines on corporation tax and fuel tax, growth remains stubbornly low and we are in for a rough time on living standards.