Evan Davis’s new BBC Radio 4 series on tax is an excellent listen. one of the most memorable quotes from the first programme was the Revenue and Customs investigator who said that taxation was the price we pay to live a civilised society.

By coincidence, today I also came across this excellent analysis of what would happen if – instead of putting burden of deficit reduction on cutting spending it was shared equally with raising taxes.

Both should give us pause for thought about the alternatives to austerity and cuts.