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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
National
John Crace

Welcome to the half-real, half-fantasy world that is ‘the day after the budget’

Rachel Reeves
Rachel Reeves told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that freezing thresholds didn’t really count as a tax rise. Even though it meant more people paying more in tax. Photograph: Adrian Dennis/PA

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Neither actually. It’s a bizarre hybrid, an altered hallucinogenic universe. Where up is down and down is up. Everything always slightly out of reach.

A world otherwise known as “the day after the budget”. A day when politicians and amateur commentators are guaranteed to talk more doggybollox than on any other day of the year. A day when everyone gets their 15 minutes of shame.

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