Regardless of all that's been claimed by Mr. Osbourne he has to admit that raising VAT is the most uncreative, unimaginative & dull of all the options on the table. I mean, it's all a bit 101 isn't it ? The bluntest tool in the shed ?

Any Chancellor with wisdom would realize that perhaps now isn't the time to further trouble an economy already feeling tapped and pressured. He could have waited until the time was a bit more ripe if at all.... Then again, we'll all just get used to it won't we ?

If he truly cared for people, which incidentally, should be the first criterion of a Chancellor, let alone a politician, he might ask himself what really is in the best interests of the country but it seems that he doesn't really have a clue. Or a care. It's going to worry a lot of people that are already terrified. Nice.

The day George Osbourne is remembered as a great Chancellor is not on the horizon as far as I can see. They may say he "did what was required" or " was tough when necessary" but fundamentally he lacks or, seems to lack, any sense of the common touch. I think it's known as the "vision" thing

We need epochal, humane, far sighted thinking, we get...a VAT rise. The genius of simplicity ? Maybe.

Considering the vast amount of alternatives that have been presented over the last few years it strikes me as both cowardly and cynical.

True, it may go some way towards lowering the consumption of needless frippery and arguably the incremental price rise can be seen to be meaningless but there is no arguing that percentage wise it hits the lower income bracket harder as a proportion of their income.

Robin Hood in reverse indeed.

Just lame, luddite economic policy really.

In other words...Conservative. In extremis.