I think we all know how Labour’s media machine works – expectation management.
Last week, Simon Heffer came up with and idea, to which I made reference yesterday.
There is one money-saving move Mr Darling could take in the Budget that would cut the Tory party off at the knees: and that would be to announce that he will not after all levy taxes at 50 per cent on the so-called rich. He would have perfectly sound fiscal reasons for doing this, aside from the political devastation this would cause to the credibility of a Tory party that cannot dare to promise such a thing.
So, here, to set the snare, is bogeyman Ed:
Cabinet sources say the Schools Secretary and his wife, Work and Pensions Secretary Yvette Cooper, want the threshold for the new 50p top rate of tax to be reduced from £150,000 to £100,000.
Cabinet sources? Uh huh?
And Badgerchops isn’t quite as unequivocal today as Lyam Byrne was on the Daily Politics last week.
And consequent to that, and the on-going double-dip worries,
Sterling fell by nearly two cents this morning after a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, warned that the British economy could shrink again.
So maybe Darling is playing a dangerous game with the markets. but if he ditches the 50p rate (because it’ll cost money), repeats the bankers’ bonus tax in 2010 and spends that on a sop to the povs, Labour could be ahead in the polls by the time Gordo goes to see the Queen.
And my 10-1 will start to look like a lovely little bet.
Dammit, Beavis.
AJ
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