If Osborne wanted to be as provocative as possible (which he probably does, to appease the Tory right, his future backers for the leadership), he could hardly put together a more incendiary mix than cutting tax rates for the ultra-rich in the budget and then, 2 weeks later, impose swingeing cuts on some of the poorest families in the country.
On 6 April working couples around the country on £18,000 a year (or £346 a week, just three-quarters of the average wage) will lose £77 a week. These families contain nearly half a million children, and their income is being cut by more than a fifth. Continue reading
Of course the 50p top rate of income is more important for its symbolism than its efficacy. The free market right should stop griping and thank their lucky stars that the last Labour government lacked the political courage required to reintroduce genuinely progressive taxation.
Penalties, as the current bonus season reveals all too clearly, are still a matter of class. If you’re a young person 16-24 on a work experience programme promoted as ‘voluntary’, and you drop out even for good reason, you stood to lose two weeks’ benefit (until the government was forced to back down by public pressure). If you’re a banker and you’re guilty of large-scale mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI), you have your bonus reduced by 25-40% – not quite the same existential penalty when your bonus was £1.45m. 
There is a moral case for capitalism that currently goes unheard, and David Cameron can make it most effectively by ensuring that the lowest paid see their pay pushed down even further. Oh, and greater numbers of people should work for highly profitable companies for absolutely nothing.
While bankers remain hate figure no.1, it is important to recognise that many other top occupations have joined the Gadarene charge to the trough. And it’s not just the board members and chief executives of the mega-corporations, who had a 49% increase in remuneration last year when the income of the bottom tenth rose just 0.1%, i.e. a 500:1 ratio between top and bottom. It’s the lawyers too. 