THE TAXMAN COMETH:

A naked Chancellor (Philip Webster, Political Editor, and Gary Duncan, 3/23/06, Times of London)

GORDON BROWN paraded himself as a prime minister in waiting who would spend rather than cut taxes yesterday as he made narrowing the gap between state and private schools an ambition for his premiership.

The Chancellor laid bare his strategy for fighting David Cameron at the next election by deliberately staking out a battleground that highlighted dividing lines with today’s Conservatives — with the choice between tax cuts and public spending the biggest of all. [...]

In his response to the Budget, Mr Cameron said that Mr Brown was an old fashioned tax-and-spend Chancellor who represented “the past.” He was the “analogue chancellor in a digital age”; he was the “roadblock” to reform.

“What we’ve got is a chancellor who has taxed too much, borrowed too much and is the roadblock to reform. He is a politician completely stuck in the past,” he said.

Sir Menzies Campbell, the Lib Dem leader, said that the Budget had been a missed opportunity. “He could have tackled the unfair tax system. He could have made the environment a priority. He could have faced up to the pensions crisis.

“He has declined to do any of these. This is a legacy from which it will be difficult for him to escape.”

The Tories could hardly ask for better ground on which to fight an election, if they have sense enough to propose significant tax reform and reduction.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 23, 2006 8:17 AM