If you cut social security payments by 10 per cent, for instance, they found the poorest areas were hit hardest. Household disposable income fell by 3.6 per cent in Merseyside and only 2.1 per cent in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. Read more
While cowards flinch and traitors sneer, John Prescott keeps his red flag flying. His blog on the “collaborators” — John Hutton, Frank Field and Kate Hoey — helping the Tories has the ring of vintage Soviet propaganda.
“They’ve now turned a Con-Lib Government to a ConLibLab one and made themselves human shields for the most savage and heartless Tory policies in 20 years….I would ask if they can live with their conscience but I’d question whether they even had one to begin with.”
Look beyond the make-up on the public sector reform commission. John Hutton’s decision to chair it is a serious political coup for George Osborne. But the real shake-down is hidden in the small print. 
Osborne said Hutton’s interim report in September will look at the “the early steps we can take to save costs”. The full remit goes a bit further: Read more
Budget to wipe out deficit by 2015 with at least £24bn extra cuts – FT
Tories hope brutal Budget will be more 1981 than 1993 — FT
Osborne opens gateway to anguish — FT
Budget to include Nics break for employers — BBC
Rise in VAT may be deferred to cushion economy — The Sunday Telegraph
Osborne to launch assault on welfare benefits – The Observer
Axe hovers over benefits for 1.1m pensioners overseas — David Wooding, NoW
Don’t worry, this won’t hurt (much) – The Economist
Osborne will fall off giant see saw — Alistair Darling
Boy George is wearing the coalition trousers – Andrew Rawnsley
Don’t worry, it is all downhill from here — Fraser Nelson
Brace for the classic Tory VAT switch — Gary Gibbon C4 News
Lib Dems jittery about the Budget bloodbath — The Mail on Sunday Read more
| About this blog | Blog guide |
Jim Pickard is the FT's chief political correspondent, having joined the lobby team in January 2008. He has been at the FT since 1999 as a regional correspondent, assistant UK news editor and property correspondent.
Kiran Stacey is an FT political correspondent, having joined the lobby in 2011. He started at the FT as a graduate trainee in 2008, working on desks including UK companies and US equity markets before taking over the FT's Energy Source blog.
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