Ageing society

Budget 2012 was a bit of an anti-climax. And it was more focussed on the squeezed middle than the pinched bottom.

Raising the income tax threshold mostly benefits middle-income families, apart from those sucked into the higher rate. But it does give everyone something: so while it might be relatively inefficient way to go about it, it does help those on the lowest incomes.

Paul Goodman's tongue-in-cheek piece aiming to show how Labour could win every election from now until 2024 made me think. One of its arguments was that big demographic changes – immigration, votes in Scotland and voter distribution - would count against the Conservatives.

This decade is one of transition – transition as we adapt to our economic circumstances, transition as we try to reduce the impact of climate change, and transition as we conserve resources of all kinds. But it is also a time of transition in terms of demography.