The only reference George Osborne made to defence expenditure in his budget speech was to announce an increase -- by doubling to nearly £5000 the operational allowance paid to British soldiers deployed to Afghanistan.

What was clearly not under consideration, by a chancellor inflicting the deepest cuts in public expenditure since the 1930s, was a reduction in the war budget.

Withdrawing from Afghanistan would save at least £4 billion a year -- more than enough to cover over the next five years the £11 billion Osborne is cutting from the welfare budget. The  
cutting of the Trident nuclear missile programme would release funds equivalent to Osborne's VAT increase. But the government's war policies are sacrosanct, unlike services that support the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society, none of which are safe from Osborne's axe.