article: Although the speech lasted little more than an hour, it was substantial in its scope. Channelling former Conservative Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, George Osborne said "there will be no turning back". But in some key respects, it was Labour's clothes he stole. Picking up the mantle of 'One Nation' - appropriated but then arguably discarded by former Labour leader Ed Miliband - the centre point of Mr Osborne's speech was to take a key opposition policy, then enhance it. So there would not just be incentives for employers to pay a Living Wage, it would become compulsory for them to do so. "Britain deserves a pay rise", said the chancellor. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith almost burst a blood vessel as he cheered enthusiastically, delighted that Mr Osborne had now apparently symbolised his message that it pays to work. And Mr Osborne expropriated even more policies from his opponents, such as abolishing "non-dom" status for wealthy residents who had lived here for 15 of the past 20 years. All of this was designed to bolster his narrative that the Conservatives would help working people rather than just the wealthy. So he made his tax priorities clear. No cut yet in the 45p rate of tax which is paid on earnings above Â£150,000. With a ComRes poll for the Daily Mail suggesting 57% of Conservative voters would oppose this, it wasn't a difficult decision to reach. Those high earners will see their pension tax relief cut too, and tax avoiders will also be targeted. More low income wage earners will be taken out of tax all together, too. But in other areas he pushed ahead with measures designed to highlight divisions with the leaderless Labour Party - including a cut in corporation tax to 18% by 2020, while imposing further pay restraint on public sector employees. The chancellor knows that three of the four candidates who hope to lead the opposition have talked a lot about "aspiration", following criticism - especially from 'Blairites' - that Ed Miliband was obsessed with those at the top of society, whom he wanted to tax, and those at the bottom - while forgetting all about "the squeezed middle". So Mr Osborne helped some of those higher up the income scale - but who might be, especially in the south, struggling with high mortgage payments and may not be feeling desperately well off - by raising the threshold at which the 40p rate of tax is levied and taking 130,000 people out of that tax band entirely. And there would be more help with child care costs pretty much across the board, he said. More controversially, Mr Osborne kept the promise he made in opposition to take family homes worth up to Â£1m out of inheritance tax. Its a measure which polls suggest divides opinion largely along party lines, with Conservatives supporting it and Labour voters opposed. But on welfare reform in particular, Ms Harman argued that the chancellor's actions did not match his rhetoric on helping working families. While Mr Osborne eased the impact of
summary: It was the first fully-fledged Conservative Budget for nearly two decades, and one that was as deeply political as it was fiscal.