IT'S funny how Government ministers think the working masses are uneducated fools.

The budget this Government is promoting as a budget for working people is starting to filter through and a lot of working people who are in receipt of working tax credits and child benefits will actually loose out.

Pensioners are better off because they have received an extra £5.30 a week (£275.60/year) which is the headline.?But not all pensioners are in receipt of a full pension therefore the £5.30 will be pro rata for those on less.

At the other end of the scale millionaires are going to get a reduced tax allowance of 5p, from 50p to 45p. This means they will receive a windfall of around £40,000/year. This is more than most working people earn in a year (average £27,000).

The Chancellor explained that the reason for this is that the 50p rate did not bring in the projected revenue. I wonder if this is because millionaires got their accountants to offset earnings so that they protected their wealth. The same,?I would suggest, could also happen when the rate is reduced. No change there then. The Chancellor earns £134,565 as a minister. He also has a rent income from his £2m home and a 15 per cent interest in the family business but maintains that he does not cross the threshold for the higher rate of tax. He obviously has a good accountant.

The budget has and will give confidence to the rich to go out and get more money and will hopefully, in a small way, help a few working people and give them confidence to continue on a minimum wage.

Maybe we are uneducated fools because politicians can persuade us that what they say is good for us all.

After all we are all in this together.

– Robert Harris, Berry Hill.