NEWS: Cuts and expenditure viewed as one make sense of the Budget

By now you will all have your own views of the Budget. Does it tighten the fiscal screw, as Chancellor Kenneth Clarke claims, or does his plan to recover pounds 7 billion by closing tax loopholes and making a dead set at fraudsters and smugglers represent a black hole in his calculations? Has he blown the next election or laid the foundations for a fifth Tory victory?