Why Brown will get caught out this time around

Now that Gordon Brown’s central attack line of  ‘Labour investment v Tory cuts’ has been exposed as a lie, what will he do? His claim that he has planned no cuts under Labour has now been comprehensively exposed as false by Fleet Street today. Plus bloggers are producing figures and proofs – Dizzy and Chris Dillow offer very good examples of the kind of new scrutiny brought to bear in the internet age (to my mind, this is the game-changer). Do Labour’s published plans envisage real-terms spending cuts in the three years after Apr11? The answer is ‘yes’, yet ministers have been instructed to lie and say ‘no’. While Brown himself can lie as easily as he can breathe, his ministers struggle to – like Liam Byrne on Today this morning. This poses a quandary for Brown. Should be now abandon his beloved Labour Spending v Tory Cuts strategy?

To understand Brown, it is vital to understand his use of lies.