Move Over, Darling
The extraordinary reaction in the conference hall in Blackpool after George Osborne announced a major Inheritance tax cut begs the question as to whether we have reached some kind of tipping point. A common view has been that if politicians promise tax cuts, they are simply disbelieved, to the extent of being counter productive. However, it is just maybe that all those ever rising and multiplying taxes have really made the public fed up – especially when they see such relatively poor value in our public services. In other words, the public’s acceptance of ever higher tax bills may have reached a limit.
It is against this background that Alistair Darling presents his Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review today. He will be reporting slower growth, higher borrowing and spending than earlier projected. Mortgage rates have risen and the price of petrol has now reached £1 per litre.
The charges made by Labour that tax cuts will mean diminished public services are sticking less and less, especially as the Tories have accepted Labour’s overall control total anyway. The public is beginning to realise that far from being the tight fisted figure he likes to project, Gordon Brown has been spectacularly good at spending (and wasting) our money. Poor Alistair Darling will have to deal with the consequences of this profligate legacy today