Originally Posted by Fraser Nelson
The "total cuts" figure is, oddly, not printed in the Budget. Perhaps because it's so embarrassingly small. After the Autumn Statement, it was 5 per cent over four years. Now it's back to 3.7 per cent over four years: that is to say, total cuts of just 0.9 per cent a year. The Chancellor's cuts are mild — milder than Denis Healey's now-forgotten cuts. Over the next five years, the spending total has risen: in 2014-15, we'll be spending £744 billion, an extra £11 billion. A relatively small figure, but you get the overall direction. Remember this next time Ed Balls talks about "deep and fast" cuts.
Next, Osborne has back-shifted a lot of the pain. Originally, total spending was going to be down 1.7 per cent this year. Now, it's just 0.6 per cent. This is in the margin of error so it can be said that there are, in effect, no cuts in total spending this year. Pain has been shifted to the end — so the tax burden for 2015-16 has been revised up by £335 million. But this would be the first year of the next government.