Budget Blues
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Most, if not all of us, will end the day worse off than we began it.
We knew it was coming but it still didn't entirely soften the blow.
You may be worried that your housing benefit may be cut at a cap of £20,000 a year, that's a maximum of £400 a week. If your family home costs the state more, you'll have to pay it or get slung out.
Or it could be capital gains tax (CGT) that's your concern. If you're a high earner it increases at midnight to 28% but for basic rate taxpayers it continues at 18%.
The controversial CGT plans seemed to please Mark Prisk. The MP for Hertford and Stortford, who's Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, nodded vigorously and beamed from his seat in the gallery at the Chancellor's decision to protect the capital gains of the majority of tax-payers.
Most of us in the middle will see our child benefit frozen with VAT increasing to 20% and a public sector pay freeze for two years will hit many.
The Conservatives waved their order papers enthusiastically at the end of the hour-long diatribe but Lib Dem hands stayed firmly in their laps.
The lack of Lib Dem enthusiasm for the cuts was obvious. Bob Russell, Lib Dem MP for Colchester, was very unhappy.
"Only five weeks ago I was campaigning against a rise in VAT... now I'm wondering how this has happened," he told us minutes after George Osborne sat down.
He said he needed to decide what to do next.
Mr Russell's been deeply opposed to the coalition since its inception while fellow Lib Dem Norman Lamb, MP for North Norfolk, who stood by the door taking notes through proceedings today, is in the thick of it as party leader Nick Clegg's right-hand man.
The only sop to Lib Dem policies has been the raising of the income tax threshold by £1000 to £7475 in April 2011 - which even falls short of the £10,000 the party was wanted.
Harriet Harman, acting leader of the Labour Party, asked the House how on earth Liberal Democrats could vote for such a package.
While behind the press gallery we were assured by Rupert, the Conservative delivering the budget briefing, that it was a progressive package and a fair budget.
Welcome to the political blog for the East. I'm Deborah McGurran, the Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú's Political Editor for the region. From Lowestoft to Luton, this is the place for politics with an eastern twist.
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