How Brown might spin himself as our Value Added Saviour

As James indicated earlier, the problem for Brown is that his VAT cut just won’t get noticed (and that the eventual rise in VAT – to 22.5 percent? – will be). That’s why you can expect the rejuvenated Labour spin operation to work overtime trying to make it look like the measure’s curing all our economic ills. How might they go about it? I wouldn’t be surprised to see a near repeat of Brown’s “working to lower oil prices” message from earlier this year. Then, he chatted with some Saudi princes, made a big show of it, and – hey presto! – oil prices started to fall dramatically. Of course, the fall was nothing to do with Brown. Oil prices were starting to drop anyway, because of reduced demand for oil during a recession. Our Dear Leader just hopped on to this falling trend, and claimed credit for it.