Osborne needs to find another £34bn in Budget

The previous Labour Government had already planned, but not detailed, £51bn a year of spending cuts and tax increases. But, after examining revised official economic forecasts last night, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said new measures would be necessary if Osborne wanted to meet his previous pledges of accelerating deficit reduction. In its analysis of figures from the newly-established Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), the IFS says:"Prior to the financial crisis Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling chose to aim for a surplus on the cyclically-adjusted current budget of...