The Observer view on the budget | Observer editorial

For all the Tories talk of hard-working families, the poor will be hit hard in their Britain of the future

The red box George Osborne brandished on the steps of the Treasury for the last time before the general election did not just contain a budget. Nestled underneath the figures and projections lay a manifesto: a manifesto for a more divided and less humane Britain.

When Osborne made his first autumn statement as chancellor five years ago, he declared "those with the broadest shoulders should bear the greatest burden" of the deep fiscal consolidation he set out. His speech was awash with rhetoric: the poorest would be protected from the worst of the cuts. Instead, there would be tax cuts for the lowest paid and the ring-fencing of budgets for local schools and hospitals.

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