LET’S not start off on a churlish note. Tax credits cuts to be watered down – well done Mr Chancellor. The opposition of many forced you to count up the savings to be made against the votes to be lost and you calculated that game wasn’t worth the candle.

But look not too far behind the baying hurrahs of those seated behind George Osborne on those green benches and you’ll see it was another day, another set of his “clever” tricks.

So while he makes his vote calculations and drops tax credits, “protects” the police and throws some cash towards the NHS, the latest chart from the Office of Budget Responsibility shows clearly that the pell-mell, hang-the-cost drive for austerity will rely heavily on welfare cuts, tax receipts and more cuts to public spending.

He’s still thirled to creating a budget surplus by 2020 and he’s still determined to get there on the backs of the most vulnerable. He hasn’t abandoned the £12 billion welfare cuts, but isn’t yet prepared to tell us exactly where these cuts will fall. He’s hanging on to the two-child limit on tax credits from April 2017 and the doing away with the family element of tax credits. And while he’s at it he’s extending benefit conditions to another one million people and maintaining the four-year freeze on all non-maternity or disability benefits for working-age people. That means as prices rise, the income of those most in need will continue to fall and another million people will jump through hoops as the UK Government attempts to deny them the support they need.

But he has the money, our money – £31bn, plus the £10bn for “contingencies” – to spend on replacing the Trident subs Scotland has consistently said are not wanted here. And he’s not stepping back from increasing the inheritance tax threshold.

Are we investing in the future to justify any of this pain? Well not in the future of our young people, with a rise in the apprenticeship levy or the removal of housing benefit for 18 to 21-year-olds.

None of this takes us one step closer to his assertion that we will have a “high wage” economy. If you cut the support people rely on, remove the public services they need and penalise young people trying to create an independent life for themselves, you do not one jot to help anyone get into work, far less work with a decent wage. And spinning all this under the mantle of a “national living wage” of £9 an hour for folks over 25 by 2020, is the one of the worst of his deceits. It is neither a living wage nor one that in five years will come anywhere close to being a wage to live on, far less a fair one . And if you’re under 25 years old, then your woes have just been increased.

All of that belies any notion that this Chancellor and Tory Government have listened and changed their tune. They’ve only heard what is said when the warnings equate to votes, and the tune is exactly the same.

Here’s to another a good year of factual, investigative journalism 

AS MOST of my friends know, I am often late with the birthday well wishes. It’s not that I don’t mean them, it’s just pretty poor organisation. The National is no exception and so I missed the day itself. But I do have happy birthday wishes to this newest entrant to our mainstream media. And they come from me not just as a columnist, but as a reader too
Journalism that investigates, presents factual information and does not confuse that with comment but also offers analysis and comment, is critical to a health democracy. 
Journalism that challenges ideas and statements and holds those with power to account, works for all of us.
In one short year, The National has shown that it can do just that. With an alternative perspective to most mainstream media, with quality factual journalism and with a range of comment and analysis on issues that affect us here at home and importantly, across the world.
So belatedly, my congratulations to all involved and my thanks too that this paper has proved itself worthy of the calculated risk taken with its launch. 
Birthday wishes should speak of the future, so here’s to another good year where you keep on providing the news and challenging all those in power.

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