Brown's Final Con Trick?

Tomorrow's papers will no doubt have the headline of "2p cut in Income Tax". However behind the headline will be the usual smoke and mirrors that the con artist Gordon Brown always employs at his Budgets.

By saving till the end his declaration on an income tax cut he will make the headlines and appear at first sight to be a beneficial man delivering gifts to all and sundry, but behind all the words is the real truth.

• The overall impact of income tax /NIC changes will cost working families £340m a year.
• A single person without children earning £16,000, like an NHS maternity care assistant or a police community support officer, will pay more a year in tax, and not gain from tax credits.
• Everyone earning between around £5,000 and £18,000 will pay more income tax, and many will become more dependant on the complex tax credits system. Half of all tax credit payments are wrong, and over £2bn has been lost to fraud and error.
• The tax burden is set to rise from 39.2% last year to 40.4% in 2008/9. That’s a rise of over £17bn.

The great Tax credit scheme will have to be used to attempt to claw back the money that Gordon has taken away from the lower paid. Anyone who has been through the nightmare it is, will not be expecting much apart from when it is totally wrong and billed once more to us the taxpayer.

This is all before the fine details (hidden taxes on us) of this con trick of a budget are exposed for what they are.

Independent Online Edition > UK Politics