Inequality on the rise

In his autumn budget speech, George Osborne repeated a charge he had made several times before, but added a twist:

"When I presented my first spending review in 2010 and set this country on the path of living within its means, our opponents claimed that growth would be choked off, a million jobs would be lost and inequality would rise. Every single one of those predictions has proved to be completely wrong." (my italics)

I do not remember the predictions about job losses, but I do recall Labour claiming that GDP would fall (it didn't, but GDP probably does not deserve to be the totem it is anyway) and that inequality would rise. They were joined in the latter by Liberal Democrat back-benchers, who unkindly pointed out that the haves gained significantly over the have-nots during the Blair-Brown years also.

Now we have further confirmation that Osborne has not reversed the trend to inequality.