Osborne plays Brown

Interesting piece from James Forsyth in this weeks Spectator on the loss in Child Benefit for higher rate tax payers - accessed via ipad, so no link.

Titled 'If Cameron is heir to Blair, Osborne is heir to Brown' it looks at the tactical nature of George Osborne suggesting that the Child Benefit move was a tactical attempt to wrong-foot Labour - straight out of the Gordon Brown political guide.

If they accept that people earning over £44,000 should shoulder more responsibility, they are accepting an end to universal benefits and the enormous client base built up over 13 years of Labour government. If they object and defend the 15%  most wealthy, they become morally indefensible.

The Roaring Silence

Notice the roaring silence from the left over the withdrawal of child benefit for higher rate tax payers. And how many tears does David Davis think we should shed for people earning over £44,000 losing their child benefit? Then we have Laura Kuenssberg of the BBC suggesting it's the Conservatives equivalent of the 10p tax disaster.

Oh no it isn't. Why exactly is taking an average of £1770 (assuming 2.2 children) from people earning over £44,000 (that's 4%) the same as doubling - yes doubling - the tax take (that would be 100%) from the poorest people in our society earning less than £15,000 per year?

I do not know if the amount raised by this measure is essential to pay down the deficit left by Labour. But I do know that people earning over £44,000 are exactly the ones that need to be paying it. Not the poor.

Child Benefit

Pretty pedestrian speech from George Osborne this morning finishing with that terrible slogan 'Together in the National Interest'. Whoever thought that up?

But one small issue around child benefit that I heard raised at Liberal Conspiracy suggesting that its an attack on women can be put to bed.
Listening to George Osborne on the Today program, he explained that child benefit would be claimed back through the tax system from anyone earning over £44,000pa. Not from their partner.