Will Straw, straw men, possibly other hay related jokes

So, asks Will Straw, newly selected Labour PPC for Rossendale and Darwen…

“if the Lib Dems are so keen to reinstate the 50p tax, why did they stand by and let Osborne cut it?”

 Oh dear.

It seems to have eluded Mr Straw that we are in a coalition.

That cutting the band from 50p to 45p was the quid pro quo we demanded for taking 2.7m people out of tax altogether, and reducing taxes for a further 24m.

That Labour could have done the same but in fact chose to abolish the 10p tax band, thus increasing the tax burden on the poorest.

That the Labour party had 13 years to introduce the 50p tax band; they managed it for just the last 6 weeks they were in power.

That the current top rate of tax is 5p in the £ more than the top rate under Labour for 12 years and 8 months of their tenure.

That having an aspiration to continue to tax the wealthiest, not the poorest, is something you might expect Labour to laud.

And that Labour actually seems quite keen on other Lib Dem tax policies. The Mansion Tax springs to mind.

Sure, Will Straw is just politicking.

But he’ll have to do better than that.