Just after last year's budget I did a presentation to a local networking group - "What the budget means to you". In it I expressed the view that, because of the abolition of the 10% tax rate on earnings from 2008, the only clear losers from the budget were the low paid, and that it was pretty sickening. In making this point I'm not claiming that I was being amazingly perceptive; it was commonly observed within the industry that childless people earning £18,000 or less would suffer.
Last week, a year after the announcement, just as the change came into force, Labour MPs began to complain about it. I can see only three possible explanations for it taking a full twelve months for them to rock the boat.
1. They didn't understand the change when it was announced. This isn't really plausible, unless they are living in a bubble. As I say, every professional adviser and well-informed layperson saw it immediately.
2. They want to be able to claim to their constituents that they opposed the change, whilst at the same time not jeapordising it - clearly, it wasn't going to be reversed a week before it came into force, blasting a massive hole in the anticipated tax take for the next year.
3. Last year, as a Labour MP you weren't allowed to question Gordon Brown. Increasingly, you are.
Whichever one it is, none of them reflect well on the politicians involved - they all represent either incompetence or cynical party politics, when the focus ought to be on ensuring a fair deal for all taxpayers.
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