79% think tax cuts now will be paid for later
A ComRes poll for the BBC's Daily Politics found that 65% of people said they had cut their expenditure because they were worried about the future and that a majority of people - 54% - disagreed that they would spend more if the government cut their taxes. An overwhelming majority (79%) thought that any tax cuts now would mean higher taxes in the future.
More positively for the government a majority - albeit a narrow 51% - thought that Britain was well placed to weather the economic troubles compared to other countries.
Trust in Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling to handle to present economic downturn realtive to David Cameron and George Osborne also improved - they led 47% to 28% compared to 42% to 31% last time, though it is important to note that unlike normal ComRes polls this is not politically weighted and, given that questions like this are highly correlated to voting intention, the actual Labour lead will be exaggerated.
For a proper reaction to the PBR today we should be getting the monthly YouGov poll at the end of the week and may possibly be getting a few extras in the meantime. ICM's monthly poll for the Guardian has yet to rear its head - it may be out tomorrow (too early for PBR) or it may have been held back so it can be done straight afterwards, in which case it might turn up around Thursday.
On a unrelated note, cheers to MPs and journalists who voted this one of the best ten blogs in the Total Politics poll here.
