The chancellor faces triple-dip recession, failed deficit targets, growing inequality, low investment and increased unemployment as he announces his budget.

Charities, church groups and trade unions have combined to call on the government to stop punishing the poorest through its economic and welfare policies.

The assertion that “those at the top and those at the bottom are being hit hardest” by the government's austerity policies suggests a misleading equivalence, says Simon Barrow. In reality it is those with least who are being punished most.

When UK chancellor George Osborne and other ministers pledged to slash benefits further, and remove basic rights, while protecting the assets of millionaires, some words of the prophet Zechariah two-and-a-half millennia ago seemed appropriate, says Savi Hensman. She challenges people of faith to develop a more critical perspective on leadership, both political and religious.