The spinning compass
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Much is understandably being made of the political ramifications of the quite remarkable mess Gordon Brown is now in over first his decision to scrap the 10p tax rate and then double back on himself by cushioning the blow for assorted vulnerable groups. First he denies there are to be many losers – according to the Telegraph he
even assured Tony Blair last year that scrapping the 10p rate would hurt only a few thousand workers, not the 5.3 million even the Treasury now accepts will lose outthen he performs a U-turn but announces a rescue scheme of such arcane complexity no-one can understand it (but you can be sure the benefits of it will melt away under scrutiny). And the only reason he did this at all, as David Cameron observed in the Commons exchanges today, was to buy off the serious rebellion amongst his seriously upset MPs who believe quite simply that he lied to them. His olive branch has thus turned into a boomerang; once again, this Prime Minister is on the floor, felled by a combination of gross policy error and maladroitness. So no wonder people are asking whether this is yet another ‘defining moment’ for the implosion of the Brown premiership.
But what leaps out at me is that this is the Gordon Brown who bangs on and on and on about ‘lifting people out of poverty’ – ostensibly his life’s mission -- and then goes and clobbers the poor. This is the Brown who seeks out every possible way to take money and privileges away from the middle class in order to help the poor, whom he then makes even poorer. We all know that his poverty agenda has in fact grossly failed the poor, but that’s a different matter. What we are looking at here in the abolition of the 10p tax band is a cold-eyed, deliberate mugging of the poor for a portion of their already meagre earnings.
It was never about helping the poor at all, of course. It was always about power.
So much for the rock of Caledonian granite. So much for the moral compass.
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Melanie Phillips is a Daily Mail columnist. She also writes for the Jewish Chronicle and is a panellist on BBC Radio Four's Moral Maze. Her most recent book is 'Londonistan', published by Encounter and Gibson Square.
For a complete set of Melanie's articles click here
Melanie Phillips blog archive
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N. Simon
April 23rd, 2008 6:42pmThere's no way the government can pull single people on a low income out of poverty. They want to make up the 10p basic rate in tax credits, which singles aren't eligible for.
Then there's the increased cost of food, housing, fuel bills, etc. Yes, the elderly get a good percentage of their winter fuel paid for, but the disabled only get £10 for winter fuel, and need to either keep warm, or eat. They can't do both.
Nu Labour have set this country back 100 years, and the gap between rich and poor have widened to such a great extent that whatever way you look, you can't see any way out for those in dire poverty.
And this government have had the nerve to say we're better off today than in 1997! The extortionate cost of living today is proof enough that the majority are far worse off today than ever before.
N. Simon
April 23rd, 2008 6:42pmThere's no way the government can pull single people on a low income out of poverty. They want to make up the 10p basic rate in tax credits, which singles aren't eligible for.
Then there's the increased cost of food, housing, fuel bills, etc. Yes, the elderly get a good percentage of their winter fuel paid for, but the disabled only get £10 for winter fuel, and need to either keep warm, or eat. They can't do both.
Nu Labour have set this country back 100 years, and the gap between rich and poor have widened to such a great extent that whatever way you look, you can't see any way out for those in dire poverty.
And this government have had the nerve to say we're better off today than in 1997! The extortionate cost of living today is proof enough that the majority are far worse off today than ever before.
Tom
April 23rd, 2008 7:05pmBrown and the Labour Party want to turn the poor into a client group dependent on tax credits, which few of us know how to claim.
Lee Jakeman
April 23rd, 2008 10:51pmIt's only a question of time before the UK breaks up into four independent countries. It will happen, because most people want it to happen - for different reasons. What we are witnessing right now is the disintegration of the British Union. And Blair and Brown are the ones primarily responsible for it. The English poor have been betrayed by Labour. They've seen their communities wrecked, their jobs taken by immigrants, their intelligence insulted by political correctness. English nationalism is brewing and is about to explode. Watch out.
M Clyde
April 23rd, 2008 11:52pmI predicted 10 years ago that he would lose New Labour the next election if he ever became Prime Minister. All he has ever done is snipe at the heels of a competant leader. He should go now. I feel sorry for Alastair Darling though who genuinely opposes these changes.
Geoff Miller
April 24th, 2008 7:04amHow can doubling the 10p tax band, snatching billions from peoples pension funds (public servants excepted!), increasing fuel prices (over 70% is tax), increasing food prices, increasing interest rates etc etc be "helping the poor".
He is making us poor!
His tax grabs from low and middle income people and refusal to tax rich foreigners together with massive increases in the public sector wage and pensions bill, MP's having the best pensions of course, just goes to show what a mess he has made whilst Labour has been in power.
All Labour adminstrations end in chaos - why should this be any different?
roger Davies
April 24th, 2008 8:04amThe only way to help the poor is to stop taxing them.
Eddie
April 24th, 2008 8:09amThe late J.Stalin could have learnt a thing or two about control.
TDK
April 24th, 2008 11:50amCan I suggest you give the words "spinning" "moral" and "compass" a twelve month sabbatical.
I speak as someone who often (eg. not MMR) agrees with you.
It is despicable that we tax the poor, pass that money through several layers of bureaucrats and then give it back, rather than raise the tax threshold.
peter watkins
April 24th, 2008 2:37pmThere is something spooky about the concerted and co ordinated attempts by the right to smear Brown at every turn.
Simple politics aside, I wonder what the right has to fear most about this man that they take every opportunity to dirty his name?
BWilliamson
April 24th, 2008 5:46pmPeter Watkins talks of sniping as if it only came from the right. He should try reading the Guardian Comment is Free page. Even the left are abandoning this excuse for a PM in droves.
Ann
April 24th, 2008 6:58pmPerhaps, Peter, it's the trivial fact that his personal defects are hugely damaging to this country and that he is by some margin the worst PM we've had in 70 years?