Budget 2012 - analysis with evidence

As ever, there are loads of sources that students can use to analyse the Budget and to extract pieces of Evidence for the Examples they will need to add depth to their analysis in essays. Those who are attending the current round of revision workshops will recognise this as a key part of ensuring that they write essays which PEEL the answer (each paragraph makes one Point, using Examples with Evidence, offering Evaluation and Linking to the question). As start points, I would suggest these sources which are reasonably free of opinions: BBC website: Budget 2012 at a glance, Farewell 50p tax rate, and Over 65-s tax-free income freeze The Guardian Budget 2012: welfare cuts, tax cuts too, but retreat on child benefit and for the visual learners a nice graphic version: Tax and spending plans visualised

This year’s Budget offers valuable material for many parts of both AS and A2 papers - obviously fiscal policy for both AS and A2, with the opportunity to pick out measures designed to influence the supply side and the demand side of the economy, and evaluate the likely impact on macroeconomic performance. But also for AS micro there are plenty of examples of government intervention aimed at market failures, and for A2 micro there is a strong focus on redistribution of income - to what extent to you agree with Ed Miliband’s accusation that this is a ‘Budget for millionaires’, or that it will benefit the young at the expense of the pensioners?