Clegg: IFS airbrushing the picture
Nick Clegg, in an interview with the Guardian, attacks the Institute of Fiscal Studies for branding the spending review as “regressive”:
“I don’t think this is something to be triumphalist about … this is a very serious task that we do not relish. This is not something I would get bunting out for. This is a really serious time.
“I think you have to call a spade a spade. We just fundamentally disagree with the IFS.
“It goes back to a culture of how you measure fairness that took root under Gordon Brown’s time, where fairness was seen through one prism and one prism only which was the tax and benefits system.
“It is a complete nonsense to apply that measure, which is a slightly desiccated Treasury measure.
“People do not live only on the basis of the benefits they receive. They also depend on public services, such as childcare and social care. All of those things have been airbrushed out of the picture by the IFS.”
