Gordon Brown’s piece of theatre worked a treat. Thanks to his end-of-speech flourish, changes to personal taxation announced by the chancellor of the exchequer in the UK Budget were thought to represent a 2p in the pound cut in income tax. This turned out to be inaccurate.

The basic rate of income tax was cut from 22p to 20p. But the abolition of the 10 per cent starting rate of income tax means the overall changes are actually worth the equivalent of a 0.2p cut. In absolute terms, the first measure will cost the Treasury £8.1bn in 2008-09, while the second will almost recoup this, raising £7.3bn.