Politics

The most interesting line in the PM’s press conference was Brown’s argument that, precisely because it is “funded”, the Tories’ latest tax proposal does not represent a fiscal stimulus. Gordon is now positively flaunting his jilting of Prudence, scorning the Tories because they are trying to cling to the fiscal principles – “stability”, “responsibility” etc – which were the hallmarks of his decade in Number Eleven . The basis of the initial Cameroon strategy was to edge the Conservative Party towards the economic orthodoxy of the Blair-Brown years with the caveat that the Tories would “share the proceeds of growth” between tax cuts and public spending. This ideological consensus has

Much as I applaud the sentiment behind David Cameron’s plan to help employment by cutting taxes, did he have to claim he’d “create 350,000 jobs” that way? He may answer: yes, the media want such a figure, and just you see they’ll put it high up the story tomorrow. Plus we’re not in power, so we’ll never have to prove it. But to my nerdy eye, this figure spoils it. I mean, there are 940,000 on Jobseekers’ Allowance – is Cameron really proposing to reduce that that by a third? In a downturn? But my more serious objection is that cutting payroll tax at the margin has a heavy deadweight

“I’m always honest with the British public” said Gordon Brown at his monthly press conference. Then, this: “There can be no argument about where we’ve been over the last few years on debt. Debt was reduced from 44% of national income to 37% at the latest count. And that is a fact.” No, Prime Minister, that is a lie. The latest count was in September, when the ONS said net national debt is 43.4% of GDP. “Whatever else we want to argue about, let us be clear that we start from a low base in public debt. The question is what you do as a result of that… I just

“Never hate your enemies – it affects your judgement”. This advice from Michael Corleone is very relevant to Gordon Brown, who makes his worst  mistakes when he thinks he’d destabilising Tories. He loved how scared they were about talk of an October election last year, but didn’t realise how stupid he’d look when he didn’t call one. The speculation rebounded on him. Same, I suspect, with his tax cut. Still no news today, but people are expecting £15 billion. This figure is actually a guesstimate from Robert Chote of the IFS,  who told the FT last week that he wouldn’t be surprised if Brown were to cut taxes by the

The tax wars have entered a rather unedifying stage.  Cameron was set to announce the Tory proposal in a press conference at 1000 tomorrow morning.  But then Downing Street announced earlier that Brown’s monthly press conference would be at 0930 tomorrow, instead of the usual 1200.  Surely that wouldn’t have anything to do with sucking reporters, cameras and TV coverage away from the Tories, would it?  Whatever Brown’s intentions, Team Cameron have trumped him by moving their man’s press conference to 0830.  Westminster choreography at its finest. One thing’s for sure: you can expect much “we got there first” jostling over the next few days.  But, in the end, I

You have to give David Cameron marks for trying. He’s still trying to breathe life into the word “responsibility” in hope that it can become some kind of a political battle cry. Steve Hilton literally built a business making “corporate social responsibility” into something that companies buy into – but it’s harder to do the same with politics. Every politician claims what they do is responsible, it’s not a distinguishing feature. The more Cameron uses the r-word, the more it reminds me if Brown starting every sentence “it is right that we…” Yet no new Tory idea is complete without the r-word, whether it’s the Debt Responsibility Mechanism or the