Over 20 million working people will be better off next year after Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government delivered the biggest ever increase in the income tax personal allowance in the Budget.
The massive £3.5bn tax cut for working people delivers:
The biggest ever single uplift in the tax threshold
A personal allowance of £9,205 in April 2013
21 million working people getting an extra £220 tax cut
Brings the total tax cut for basic rate tax payers to £550
Brings the total number of people lifted out of tax to 2 million.
Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg used his speech to the Party's Spring conference in NewcastleGateshead to call for the forthcoming budget to be a "budget for fairness" and pledged that it would help working familes.
The Deputy Prime Minister pledged that by 2015 Britain would have seen an end to control orders, the first gay marriages and the first elections to the House of Lords.
Fairer taxes, promoting green jobs, protecting your civil liberties - these are just some of the achievements of the Liberal Democrats in government.
We're building a freer, greener and more liberal country - and stopping some of the worst excesses of the Conservatives. Find out more in this infographic.
In his keynote speech to the Liberal Democrat Conference, Party Leader and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has outlined his goals for the Government and the country over the coming years. He reiterated his commitment to liberal values on the environment and human rights and his determination to ensure a fair chance for every child, saying "every child can do good things, great things, if only we give them the opportunities they deserve."
On 5th May you have a choice. You can keep the discredited First Past the Post system to elect our MPs, or you can choose a new and fairer system - Alternative Vote (AV). Back the campaign for change at www.YesToFairerVotes.org
WHAT'S THE ARGUMENT ABOUT ? What's the difference from difference from a graduate tax.
(Radio 4 'More or Less' with the Institute for Fiscal Studies - 10.12.10)
The department of Business Innovation & Skills has put all the projections on its website. but the IFS has done a far more detailed projection based on a range of likely actual earnings.
Does Farron add a new dimension in the Yellow-Red war?
Has he become the party's attack dog?
I must admit to have not been a fan of Tim Farron - the newly elected President of the Lib Dems and one of the leading opponents in his party in the university fees vote. But his fierce response to Ed Miliband's overtures to the yellow this morning suggests that we are going to see a very different tone.
This is going to be a difficult Christmas for many of us.
It's difficult a time of austerity not to fall victim to the politics of hatred and to read between the lines of what the media throws out for sensationalist headlines. To analyse the facts rather than to automatically believe the very negative response that's coming from some quarters.
Britain's economy grew twice as fast as expected over the summer, providing a boost for George Osborne as he fights Labour warnings that the coalition is jeopardising growth with the the most drastic fiscal retrenchment in a generation.
The chancellor today welcomed a "double dose of good news" after GDP grew by 0.8% in the past three months, and the ratings agency Standard & Poor's confirmed Britain's AAA credit rating. Britain, which is now considered a safe haven, is to be taken off the agency's list of countries on "negative watch".
