A Budget for One Nation?
The first big test for David Cameron’s majority government is now set for 8 July: George Osborne’s second Budget this year and the first that does not have to be negotiated with the Liberal Democrats. That sets up a paradox. For the past five years, Nick Clegg claimed to be a restraining, centrist influence on the mean, right-wing instincts of the Conservative Party. Now that restraint has been removed, but Mr Cameron presented himself on the Friday after the election as leading a compassionate, One Nation Tory government. So it will be in this Budget that we shall see what he meant.