10% tax rate U-turn

I see that Gordon Brown's glove puppet, Alistair Darling has, in the words of the BBC:

"put up the personal tax allowance by £600 - meaning anyone earning up to about £41,435 will gain £120 this year.

Mr Darling's £2.7bn tax cut for this year came as part of measures to help those hit by the 10p tax rate's axing.

He told MPs he would lower the level at which 40p tax is paid - so higher earners did not gain from the change."

The BBC go on to report Mr Darling:

"He said it meant 22 million people on low and middle incomes would gain an additional £120 this year."

Of course this is SPIN, the 22 million people would in fact only gain when compared to the position they were put in by the abolition of the 10% tax rate. As I blogged recently, this is typical of Labour - introduce a policy that cuts earnings by x% and then after protests introduce a new policy that reduced the cuts by no more than x% and declare it a great gift to the public - IT IS A CON and the public (unlike the BBC) are no longer fooled by it.


This U-turn has been made because Labour are running scared in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, they cannot afford to lose it and Gordon Brown (and the BBC) will do all that they can to ensure a Labour victory. The BBC will portray anything other than a Conservative victory as a turnaround in Labour fortunes and the end of the Conservative false dawn. Could this £2.7bn in fact be seen as Labour election expenses?


One more thought, the next time a Government minister rabbits on about unfunded Conservative tax cuts or the "black hole" in the Conservative budget, remember today when they found £2.7bn "just like that", where was this money, down the back of Number 10's sofa?


And a final point, what has Frank Field been threatened with to make the apology that you can listen to on the BBC page.