Fraser Nelson

Isn't it a scandal, Toby? The country have been informed by the BBC and the press that IHT thresholds have been doubled to £600,000. In fact, thresholds have not been touched. It was a damned lie, but a clever trick. HMT are now masters of this kind of deception. That's why Darling had his budget at 3:30pm, not noon - more chance of misleading the nation by hoodwinking the press. And do you think HMT has been on the phone to correct this false impression? No way. No more than the MoD was on the phone to correct the papers when they ran the "45 minutes from destruction" claim. (http://media.guardian.co.uk/huttoninquiry/story/0,,1047878,00.html). It is the precisely the same technique: mislead the press, ideally on a tight deadline, and let them mislead the nation for you. As far as Brown is concerned, the more people think that inheritance tax threshold has been doubled to £600k the better.