A stormy ride for Clegg as IFS pronounce ConDem Budget as 'regressive'

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has officially announced what many of us knew instinctively that the Budget of the ConDems is regressive and bears down hard on the poor.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/aug/25/poor-families-bear-brunt-of-austerity-drive

As a result of this sort of political direction organisations like the Fawcett Society are taking the government to the High Court on the grounds that it widens inequality, especially towards women. Now there are signs that Nick, call me Nick, Clegg is going to get a rough ride at the Lib Dem conference. Many Lib Dem MPs and especially party activists are deeply unhappy about the direction that the Orange Book Lib Dems, led by Clegg, are taking the party.The attacks on the poor, the old and the disabled are without parallel in modern British history, even Thatcher did not go this far - a fact which some of the Tories, such as Francis Maude, feel it is worth boasting about.

Now rebel Lib Dem MPs like Mike Hancock are warning Clegg that unless the institute's analysis can be disproved that there will be serious unrest at the autumn conference. With support among voters collapsing, dissent in the ranks and the increasing signs of capitulation to the Tory agenda on all sides, the party is in for a turbulent time. Clegg, of course, continues to assure everyone that it will be all right in the end.

An example of what is likely to come is the defection of Lib Dem councillor in Totnes to the Greens.

http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/news/Councillor-leaves-Liberal-Democrats-join-Green-Party/article-2559567-detail/article.html  Cllr Vint says: "While this has had no effect at all on the good work of the local party, it leaves me associated with national policies on welfare cuts, nuclear weapons and nuclear power stations with which I cannot identify." Expect a lot more of this in the months ahead as the mask of this coalition of the millionaires increasingly slips displaying the vicious visage of Thatcherism blue in tooth and claw.