Budgets are not confessions
The Chancellor should level with the country about the choices ahead, not hide them in the small print.
There is a ritual to Budgets. The Chancellor rises, the despatch box is opened, and for an hour the country is told a story about itself. The story is rarely the whole truth.
This newspaper believes the Chancellor should break the ritual. The public finances are under strain, the tax burden is at a historic high, and the demands on the state keep growing. Pretending otherwise helps no one.
Honesty would mean saying plainly what the choices are. If the Government wants European levels of public services, it must levy European levels of tax. If it wants lower taxes, it must say which services will shrink. The middle ground, where services are promised and taxes are hidden, is where trust goes to die.
If the Government wants European levels of public services, it must levy European levels of tax.Daily Herald
The small print has become the real Budget. Freezes to thresholds, stealthy allowance changes and fiscal drag do the heavy lifting while ministers talk about not raising headline rates. Voters are not fooled; they simply grow more cynical.
A Budget that levelled with the country would be a political risk. But the greater risk is the slow erosion of faith in the idea that government can be straight with people. That faith, once lost, is hard to recover.
None to date. The Journal corrects errors promptly and transparently. Read our corrections policy.
