THE Conservative Government was elected by the voters of Middle England, and by George they've delivered for the voters of Middle England.

When you see Iain Duncan Smith cheering in the House of Commons, you know you are on to a very bad thing. Father of two George Osborne clearly wishes the rest of us had practised his restraint, and hopefully the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will have taken the hint.

It ill becomes Mr Osborne, with a few million pounds jangling in his own back pocket to crow about his living wage, which in reality will struggle to be an existing wage once the tax credits have been deducted and the housing benefit for the under 21s has been scrapped. Man the food banks and watch the poor get poorer.

The Tories haven't changed their ways, they've just got smarter with the smoke and mirrors, and their Chancellor has proved himself once again to be more Robbing Hood than Robin Hood as he delivered his Budget surrounded by his grinning, self-congratulatory Merrie Men.

Ruth Marr,

99 Grampian Road,

Stirling.

THE principle of forcing low-wage-paying employers to pay a living wage, so the state no longer has to top up their employees' wages with tax credits is, of course, a good one. But, of course, George Osborne could be relied upon to foul it up by making the cuts in benefits larger than the gains in wages, leaving the low-paid worse off. And, on top of that, he is to compensate the employers by cutting their tax, so the state still pays in the end.

But there is one small, but welcome, silver lining to the cloud. Presumably the infamous tax-dodging, low-wage-paying multinationals, which pay little or no tax in the UK, will at least miss out on the Corporation Tax cuts.

Alistair Easton,

6 Glencairn Crescent,

Edinburgh.

IN a Budget providing funds for a memorial to the heroes of The Battle of Britain , isn't it ironic that most of "The Few" would not have qualified for the minimum wage as they would have been too young?

David Hay,

Victoria Park, Minard.

THE decision by the Chancellor in his Budget statement to end tax deductions for buy-to-let mortgages is a shocking decision which unfairly discriminates against landlords who provide valuable housing across Scotland. In other businesses, tax is applied on profit, which is as it should be. Although we welcome other measures in the Budget such as reforms to the Rent A Room scheme which will increase supply of affordable rented accommodation, the decision on buy-to-let mortgages means landlords will essentially be taxed for investing in their businesses, something utterly unthinkable in any other sector. As a result of this increase cost and risk to landlords, you may see some within the sector feeling they are forced to increase their rent levels which would obviously have a huge negative impact on tenants.

The Scottish Association of Landlords have been working constructively with both Shelter and the Scottish Government to find ways of increasing supply to drive down rent levels in hot-spots across Scotland but this decision by the Chancellor potentially takes the legs away from that valuable partnership working. We will be consulting our members, Scottish MPs and MSPs, as well as the Scottish Government and the third sector to find ways of trying to overturn this decision or, at the very least, to mitigate the damage this could cause to our business and to our customers in Scotland.

John Blackwood,

Chief Executive,

Scottish Association of Landlords,

Hopetoun Gate, 8b McDonald Road, Edinburgh.

WITH his Liberal Democrat partners acting as a millstone round his neck, George Osborne could only try to reduce the monstrous deficit built up in Gordon Brown's disastrous chancellorship.

He could do little to dismantle his predecessor's pervasive and pernicious welfarism that discouraged so many from working and left some who did dependent on handouts.

But free at last he could make the key statement of this worker's budget: "The benefits system must not support lifestyles unavailable to the taxpayers who pay for that system."

The amount workless families can claim is cut and child dependent benefit payments limited to the first two children so that such families are not incentivised to have huge broods.

If this is the first draft of his manifesto for the general election in 2020, it is clear the Tories are determined to present themselves as the champions of hard work and self-reliance.

Rev Dr John Cameron,

10 Howard Place, St Andrews.