Budget 2012: what the papers say These latter measures are mainly a watered-down version of the "tycoon tax" originally championed by Mr Clegg. Their centrepiece is a sharp hike in stamp duty, combined with a crackdown on those who shelter expensive properties in corporate structures. The victims will be mainly the super-rich and foreigners who tend not to vote in elections. However the losers also include pensioners, whose personal allowances are being frozen. The coalition's enemies will be able to characterise this as a "granny tax" to finance a giveaway to the rich. True, pensioners have so far been sheltered from austerity. But this is a hard case to sell politically. The Times The cartoon on the front page of the Times (£) depicts Britannia on a 50p coin wielding a chainsaw. The caption reads, "Taxes Chainsaw Massacre." Its leader describes the abolition of the 50p rate as "A 50p Bet on Britain" but one that will pay off: George Osborne is a deeply political Chancellor, but yesterday he did not deliver a political Budget. He delivered one that was principled and consistent, with a clear view of the economy that he wants to encourage. The political risks are large, and they are obvious.Cutting the highest rate of income tax, lowering business taxes and shifting the balance of tax between low-paid workers and pensioners are all bound to be controversial. They are, however, the right decisions. In particular, the deterrent to investment and enterprise that is represented by the 50p tax rate has been underestimated. Acting to remove it is good for business. Showing a degree of courage was not merely welcome, it was essential. Britain is in danger of drifting steadily downwards, incapable of showing enough ambition to remain a leading economy, unwilling to keep its tax rates competitive or invest in future success. The Chancellor sat down leaving plenty still to be done and said; but his speech showed that he at least understood the problem and was prepared to make difficult decisions that set the country on the right course. Daily Mail Not bad, Mr Osborne, but not good enough. That's the verdict of the Mail this morning, which gives George Osborne a B+ for yesterday's Budget: ...the question is whether this Budget goes nearly far and fast enough to prepare Britain for whatever may lie ahead. The good news is that Mr Osborne has grasped the vital necessity of tax cuts to make work worthwhile and help businesses survive against ever stiffening competition from such countries as China, India and Brazil. Especially welcome, therefore, are his decisions to raise the threshold for income tax to £9,205 (although not until next year) and to reduce corporation tax immediately, with further cuts by 2014. Meanwhile, few will weep for the victims of his crackdown on stamp duty dodgers with houses worth more than £2million. So far, so good. But this Budget also contains measures that are simply wrong. Take the "granny tax." How, when pensioners are suffering so grievously from minimal returns on their savings, can he justify scrapping age-related income tax allowances, leaving 4.41million an average of £83 worse off next year? To put it bluntly, it was dishonest to present this as a mere "simplification" to spare the elderly paperwork. We hoped spin like this had gone with New Labour. Independent Cut! Cut! is the simple headline in the Independent, which says the Budget has left too many unanswered questions: For all the sound and fury, George Osborne's second Budget signified - not quite nothing - but not much more. Indeed, the Chancellor's statement yesterday was more striking for its political drumbeat, for its emotive references to "earning our way in the world" and "supporting working families," than for anything else. Not only was the all-in-it-together rhetoric about raising more tax from "those best able to pay" not entirely convincing. There was little more than warm words when it came to what Britain needs more than anything: economic growth. Guardian The Chancellor showed his true colours yesterday, according to the Guardian's leader column. It describes his "fiscally neutral" budget as being far from balanced: Voters got their first real chance to see whose side George Osborne is on. Two years into his tenure, the chancellor delivered a budget that was not about the big picture of public spending, nor the cratering of the economy. Wednesday's red book barely changed the shape of public finances. For each tax giveaway the chancellor awarded, he made one tax or spending takeaway. In the jargon this is termed a "fiscally neutral" budget - and the politics of making any changes in one of those means that your priorities are immediately exposed. So it was with Mr Osborne's budget. He showed just who and what he thinks deserve the biggest handout; and the answer is a dismaying one. Going by his budget, the chancellor - and by extension the government as a whole - thinks that the super-rich deserve lower taxes while pensioners should hand back more to the Treasury. He believes business ought to get a helping hand through lower corporation taxes, even while Britain's army of 2.7 million unemployed got barely a mention. All in it together? It was notable that this formerly much-used phrase was not uttered by the chancellor. The Sun The red tops are on fine form this morning. Top of the agenda? Granny puns. The £3bn stealth raid on pensioners amounts to "Gran theft Osbo" says the paper. "He's taking us for fuels," on the 3p increase in fuel duty, it adds, branding Osborne's speech the "Fleecebook budget" The puns go on... George Osborne, dressed as one half of the dynamic duo Wallace and Gromit, stands next to the headline, The Wrong Trousers. The paper brands the Budget "a 58-minute kicking for Sun readers": What did George Osborne do about the soaring fuel prices crippling family finances? In one stark sentence he waved away the desperation of our hard-up readers and Britain's struggling firms. So not only will pump prices remain at obscene levels, but we will soon fork out 3p a litre extra. It would have been even dearer under Labour, George said. Forgive us if we hold back on the applause. The blows kept coming - 37p on ciggies, VAT rises on hot grub, even on holiday caravans. Pensioners stung. Another 300,000 workers dragged into the top tax bracket. The Mirror Hug a hoodie? Not Osborne or Cameron, according to the Mirror, which depicts The PM and Chancellor as robbers on its splash this morning. "The muggers' Budget" is "Gran Larceny" it says, branding the Government a "ConDumb coalition": The Chancellor of the Exchequer and Prime Minister were caught completely by surprise yesterday when the Budget began unravelling before Mr Osborne had even sat down, and Labour leader Ed Miliband tore it to shreds. The truth is that neither Tory is as good as his self-generated publicity would have us believe. If they were, this pair of well-heeled muggers would've realised that stealing the pensions of the elderly, while stuffing the wallets of the wealthy, would go down like a lead balloon. Britain needed a Budget for jobs and growth but we got cash for the rich and a dose of austerity for ordinary people who've worked and saved all their lives in the hope of enjoying a comfortable retirement. The Metro Finally, nNot to be outdone, the Metro newspaper, which is distributed in 16 cities across the UK describes the tax on pensioners as "gran theft auto"