Breaking the curious silence on upcoming tax changes

This week, Nick Clegg added his name to the fast-growing list of politicians addressing the critical question of living standards. His phrase of choice was ‘alarm clock Britain’, in effect his version of Ed Miliband’s ‘squeezed middle’. It is, of course, a clunking label for what is a serious topic (hardly the first time a politician has achieved such a feat). But quibbles over terminology aside – and as Miliband’s article on Friday confirmed – these are the first serious shots in the political battle to frame the coalition’s crucial March Budget.

It is now increasingly clear that at the heart of that struggle will be attempts by party leaders to court working households – particularly families with children – on low-to middle incomes. In that battle, Clegg has now given the strongest indication yet that the coalition’s leading argument will be a £10,000 personal allowance (at a cost – as yet unfunded