Well, well, well… it seems that the government has resorted to very desperate measures in its bid to end the 10p tax debacle. They intend to buy off the worse off with arguably a very crude compensation package.
The Chancellor Alistair Darling told MPs in Parliament that £700million will go into compensating around five million housholds who lost out at the decision by the government to abolish the 10p tax rate a year ago. 80 per cent of those affected would be compensated in full, but around the remaining 20 per cent would be compensated by half. The total package will cost taxpayers around £2.7billion.
This is the most shameful of bribes taken by a shameless government. Several questions need to be asked about this decision. The obvious one is about why Darling resorted to organising a complicated package that people wouldn’t understand and which would cost a lot of money in the process, yet the more simpler solution of restoring the 10p rate immediately and backdating it wasn’t even considered.
Anyway, the money ‘handed back’ will soon be swallowed up by the relentless increases in the cost of living. The British people will not be fooled by this latest government ‘con trick’.