Tony Müdd: The chancellor has fewer choices than you think

Every Autumn we pretend the Budget is a mystery. Which tax will rise? What rabbit will the chancellor pull from the hat? Will it be capital gains tax, pensions, property, inheritance tax or some entirely new raid nobody saw coming? In practice the more useful question is not what the chancellor could tax, but what the chancellor can tax and reliably raise serious amounts of money from. That produces a rather shorter list. The government has expensive promises to fund. A national care service. A major programme of council-house building. Higher defence spending. Measures already introd...