Indeed, but we also have to be careful of writing off numerous opinions from multiple diverse sources in multiple countries, from politicians, economists, bankers and many other roles, as well as the actual actions of the people on the ground that have born out the criticisms, as the ill educated musings of a few 'pundits'.

> When the most productive members of society...

LOL. Seriously? I'm paid in that bracket (or I was until last year when I left the UK, and I'm now paid in that bracket somewhere else) and I don't believe for a second that we're the most productive members of society, we've just figured out ways to get people to pay us a lot. I look around at some of the unutterably useless arseholes that are on similar money and litter the offices of London, particularly in anything adjacent to city finance, and can only laugh at this ridiculous piece of libertarian orthodoxy. Most productive ... most productive at clumsily and innappropriately flirting with the disinterested secretary, most productive at clearing off for a long lunch somewhere new, most productive at looking busy, passing the buck and collecting the cheque, maybe.

Yes I've heard of the laffer curve, no I'm not a particular believer that it's some sort of cast-iron truism, and neither apparently are the people you're defending, who are forecasting the various tax cuts to cost the treasury multiple billions, at least in the short term, until their miracle of growth happens, if it happens. There's a lot of argument about whether (for instance) the continuation of the lower corporation tax rate is even useful for that.

These decisions are a kick in the pants to the people who actually need a tax break, your man on the street that you mentioned above, who would quite like a bit more money in his pocket due to the spiralling cost of living and energy crisis. He could do with a tax break to keep the family going this winter and deal with the higher mortgage payments that will come about because of the further interest rate rises these new changes will necessitate.

But I guess my highly paid contractor friends will get to stick another few tens of thousands in their pension pots instead.

The best thing that can be said about this budget is that it was done at completely the wrong time.