So, late yesterday evening the BBC political correspondent learned that Labour was going to announce higher tax rates for high earners at some point in the future
Cue much excitement, filing on his mobile to the Week in Westminster on his way to another meeting & hijacking the programme for a discussion of manifesto promises & reminiscences of Tony Blair signing, with his own fair hand, before the 1997 election, a pledge never to do any such thing
That will stop us tumbling into recession & pay off out debt mountain
That is, after the spending splurge we will indulge in to celebrate the reduction in VAT
I bet the retailers are loving that too. In their busiest period of the year, while they desperately try to work out which 50% or bigger discounts will help them shift some stock, they have to adjust their tills & find time to change the price labels for all vatted goods, for a reduction of less than 5%
What did Gordon Brown’s spinners really hope to gain from all the briefing that was going on yesterday? Something real, or just control of the agenda?
What really worries me is the feeling that Gordon Brown (who mapped out the Pre Budget Report to a CBI conference this morning) actually believes his own rhetoric, just as he believed that he had put an end to boom & bust before a few reckless American bankers spoiled things for him
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