Miliband wowed us all with the stunning originality of his attack on Cameron at PMQs this week:

“With every answer, the Prime Minister shows who he stands up for: a few at the top, not the ordinary families of Britain. That is the truth. This is a country where, after four years of this Government, people are worse off. This is a Prime Minister who has already given those at the top, millionaires, a £100,000 tax cut, and he wants to give them another one. He can only govern for the few; he can never govern for the many.”

Which fits cutely into Ed’s increasingly dull narrative. Buried within the spin about today’s Institute for Fiscal Studies numbers is the proof that, whatever Ed wants to believe, the richest have been hit hardest. The wealthiest decile have seen their incomes fall by 9% since the recession, while by comparison the poorest decile have suffered a relatively smaller drop of 2.4%. Add that to the richest paying more in tax than they did under Labour and Ed’s line falls apart. Guido does not agree with the Tories line that taking more in tax from the rich is something to be proud of, though it makes a mockery of Labour’s attacks either way…

Another thing to take away from the report is that the IFS data model also supports the emerging consensus that the “cost of living crisis” is coming to an end and barely touched those on inflation indexed benefits. Whilst those famous hardworking voters saw a real terms decrease in spending power, Labour’s core shirking voters saw no real terms fall in spending power on Benefits Street until this year’s reforms.

It was way past the time that the Tories made good on their promise that work would always pay better than benefits…