The IFS and fairness  

The IFS have re entered the political row over the impact of the budget. This intervention will be seen as helpful to attempts to destabilise Lib Dems from the Coalition by claiming the poor will do badly from the Budget at a time when Labour’s main political strategy is to try to detach leftwards inclining Lib Dems from the happy union. I wait in vain to hear from the IFS on the impact of whether a 50% income tax is competitive when we need new inward investment to the UK, more entrepeneurship and job creation. We still do not know from them what rate of CGT the think would maximise the revenue. The Budget document covered the ground on the impact on low and high income earners. Much of the Budget debate in Parliament and elsewhere was about this very subject. Chart A1 of the Budget red Book shows that if you take all the budget measures (Labour and...