To judge by the reaction of the business community, the financial markets and the opinion polls to last week’s Budget, the new Government has got off to an excellent start. Confounding the hysterical reporting in most of the media immediately after the Budget, people have accepted the rather modest tax increases and spending cuts announced by George Osborne with stoicism and even approval.
Not only did a clear plurality of 41 to 32 per cent tell YouGov pollsters that the Budget was “good for the country”, 49 to 36 believed that it was “fair”. Even more strikingly, many of the measures deemed by the chattering classes to be politically suicidal won clear public support.
The business community and investors were even more relaxed — even