As any good magician will tell you, magic is the art of distraction. In order to fool the audience you need to shift their attention elsewhere so they miss the bit where they trick you. The government’s budget is in many ways an example of this kind of sleight of hand. For a decade or more now, successive Chancellors have found themselves trapped by promises not to raise taxes or cut in to public services. So they’ve found creative ways to find money that don’t appear to be taxes, even though