Aftermath

You only start to grasp the true impact of any New Labour Budget a few days afterwards once the spin has fluttered off and the true meaning of the press releases and other technical papers have been absorbed.

But already it's clear that the real story is not the tax changes that have been announced, but the impact of what will become necessary in a year or two.

Although public spending is still increasing for now, even this government have been forced to plan for real terms cuts from 2011 onwards. But their planned cuts won't be enough.

In fact, the Institute for Fiscal Studies have today pointed out that taking account of the figures in the Budget there will remain a shortfall of £45 billion a year in today's money to be met from taxation or further spending cuts by the end of the next Parliament.

Life is not going to be easy for the next government. At least we'll know who to blame.