NOW that the ink has dried on the Budget statement and analysis has drawn upon what it will mean for all of us, one fact remains: the gap between rich and poor continues to increase.

While Chancellor George Osborne revealed changes for people who have had the opportunity to save and unlock their pension pots, the real beneficiaries of the Budget will be those whose wealth has continued to grow and, with generous tax breaks, will increase further.

Austerity only hits the poor or those on low incomes.

Four years into the Coalition and the claim that all of our economic ills are the fault of the last government is becoming a tedious play on words.

Labour bore some responsibility, but let’s not forget the unscrupulous folk in the banking and financial sector playing up our fortunes and being reckless in investing our money.

Many who served in the last Labour Government have apologised for their part in the economic crash. We know that we cannot trust the free market, without robust regulation. The Chancellor has acknowledged as much in dealing with the pensions and savings reform.

Yet the same Government, which says it understands what people really want, promotes alcohol and gambling as a solution. A penny off a pint of beer and relaxing the levy on bingo will not address the real issues for those most in need.

Bernie Walsh, Coxhoe.

GEORGE OSBORNE should be congratulated for his brilliant idea of how to get Britain back on track.

Slash the bingo halls tax, cut 1p off a price of a pint of beer and a freeze on whisky duty.

He is insulting the intelligence of the working classes if he thinks they will be taken in by his comic cuts approach.

T Seale, Middlesbrough.