Gordon Brown may have sought to conjure an image of sunny uplands for the public finances on Wednesday. But his actions showed he is in a dark tunnel – with no certainty he will emerge from it in time for the next general election.

The Chancellor claimed that “our fiscal discipline is the foundation of the strength of Britain’s finances”. But if the story was that simple, he would have had the cash to cut taxes uniformly rather than reducing the burden on some tax payers while raising it for others. Nor would he be planning a squeeze on taxation and public expenditure over the next three years that will raise the tax burden to levels last seen at the start of the 1980s.