Budget 2016 Roundup
Amidst a flurry of numbers meant to show in turn toughness, compassion, economic competence and in some cases just bamboozle, came this year’s Budget refrain of “putting the next generation first”. Despite such long term claims, the chancellor’s short term aims were not far away either, shown by his pointing to the stability of the “fastest growing economy in the western world” being potentially based on staying in the EU, an outcome on which he has much pegged.
This was perhaps the most overtly political move in a highly political Budget – hardly a region went unmentioned, nor without a break or two – while the Easter bunnies out of the bonnet included a further fall in corporation tax, increased oil and gas relief and further breaks for SMEs. Many headlines tomorrow, however, are likely to include the word “sweet”, after the announcement of a Jamie Oliver-inspired sugar tax.
Yet the speech itself seemed light; many of the measures feel like little but tinkering. Instead, the Budget’s substance will be in the unmentioned spending cuts and where they will fall. But for Osborne’s hopes of succeeding Cameron, today’s speech shows he is again the man to beat.