In last week’s Chancellor’s debate, Vince Cable refused to rule out raising VAT to help fix the public finances. Now, only a few days later, the Lib Dems are pledging not to do that. What’s more, they’re saying that the Tories’ plans require a raise in VAT. And they’ve even got a ‘VAT bombshell‘ poster to drive the message home.
There’s more than a dash of Brownite politics about this – the same seasoning I detected in the Tories’ Death Tax poster. Sure, there have been rumblings that the Tories will raise VAT. But Osborne & Co. have denied that this is necessarily the case in recent days, and it’s certainly not current Tory policy. So the Lib Dems are effectively spinning a lie, and attacking that lie.
You could say that that’s what election campaigns are all about. That we’ve got to expect a little bit of rough ‘n’ tumble. But I still find it kinda dispiriting.
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