Inflation is neatly, if possibly simplistically, summed up as "too much money chasing too few goods". So it would seem madness to stoke our already dangerous level of inflation (9.9% at present) by increasing the amount of money available to the already well-off, while doing nothing to increase the supply of housing or of basic goods and services, including social services.
Apart from feeding the already overheated housing market, there is no evidence that giving money to rich people stimulates growth in the economy as a whole. Their surplus tends to go into savings rather than spending. What could improve the health of the economy is to raise the income of those currently going without to a genuine living wage. It should be noted that the people at the bottom of the income ladder pay no income tax, so will not benefit from the Chancellor's cuts to income tax. They would benefit from a cut in VAT, which the Chancellor has not touched. The Bank of England hints that we are already in recession and this budget is unlikely to improve the situation.
Without growth, the tax cuts will further raise the country's debt bill. The Tories and their financial advisors are clearly calculating that the real pain of reducing that will be deferred until after they scuttle at the next general election.
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