SO, in the end, the Chancellor played the role of the doctor who tells a patient they have terminal cancer – then downgrades the terrifying diagnosis to only a nasty course of radiotherapy.

George Osborne will grab some adoring headlines today for the clever trick of “stealing Labour’s clothes” and giving the nation a pay rise, with a 50p hike in the hourly minimum wage

And there is no doubt the “nasty” bits in his Budget were less nasty than originally billed, with a slowing down of the pace of welfare cuts and smaller overall spending cuts.

But, boy they are brutal enough! And there is no doubt that, as some of the sheen comes off the Budget – as it inevitably does – the dismal reality will sink in for so many poor and lowly-paid people.

That reality is that nearly £5bn is being swiped from tax credits, which will be cut in real terms, removed from all-but the lowest paid and from – future –families with more than two children.

It is only because the scary briefing was that many hundreds of pounds would be snatched immediately from all tax credit claimants that what was announced seems less so.

Experts were quick to debunk the myth that the so-called ‘National Living Wage’ will make up the difference. It clearly won’t, for millions.

I have scoured the Conservative manifesto but – try as I might – I simply can’t find any reference to cutting tax credits, or slashing the ‘benefit cap’ to just £20,000 outside London.

That means voters were deceived back in May, but so what, you may say? All politicians fib and bluster, especially before an election, and it’s true that Budget nasties normally follow.

After the 2010 election, the Coalition – as well as announcing massive spending cuts – pushed up National Insurance Contributions (NICs), capital gains tax and VAT.

But it seems to me that the crucial difference about this Tory Budget is that the pain of post-election belt-tightening will be felt almost exclusively by the less well-off.

There were some tax hikes on the better-off yesterday – but they will mostly be handed back in income and inheritance tax cuts.

Instead, a cook-a-hoop Chancellor is exploiting a surprise victory, and Labour and Liberal Democrat disarray, to put the burden on those who can least afford to pay.

For example, lowering the benefit cap to £20,000 will punish larger families and plunge many more children into poverty,

The Conservatives will say they are now camped firmly on the centre-ground, but I see a party that has moved sharply to the right – because they are confident that IS the new centre-ground.

But their majority is only 12 – so the reaction to this landmark Budget will tell us if they are right.

I NEED to correct last week’s revelation that only £3bn of the £13bn of transport spending for the "Northern Powerhouse" is for rail – with only £1.65bn still up for grabs.

In fact, the department for transport now tells me, the total is £4.25bn – but the entire pot is allocated to the new IEP trains, East Coast platform extensions and rail schemes around Manchester.

That’s right – not a single extra penny for any new rail schemes. No wonder it’s increasingly known as the "Northern Powercut".