Twittering about the Budget yesterday I expressed my disappointment about the absence of any further move towards fairer taxation. I failed to pick up on Chancellor of the Exchequer (CHX) Alistair Darling's not referring to personal allowances explicitly.
Inevitably, the Tories and the right-wing press have seized on this omission quite cynically as another example of a 'stealth tax'. Personally, and with the benefit of hindsight, Darling missed a trick by failing to pre-empt that line of attack. This account , for example, in his interview with Sky News helps put the record straight.
But Mr Darling told Sky News he had not changed his income tax policies since announcements he made months ago.In December, he froze the personal allowances limit because inflation - which it normally follows - was negative. The retail price inflation rate is now 3.7%, which the Tories say hits workers in the pocket. Mr Darling said it would cost the taxpayer £2bn to increase the personal allowance limit again."It is a nice political device (by the Conservatives) but it is frankly a piece of nonsense," he said."If that really is the Tories' policy ask them how they intend to pay for it."
So the facts are that under the usual rules, personal allowances for the financial year 2010/11 would have been CUT. Instead, Darling decided to leave them unchanged. Rather than a tax giveaway with what wriggle room was available, Darling chose to cut debt and concentrate tax changes in ways that will aid growth in the real economy.
What has not been picked up by the opposition parties or the right-wing press were the measures targeted at small and medium sized businesses, and the entrepreneurs that run them. These are aspirational people on whom we depend for wealth and hence job creation in the private sector. But that's Tory stealth politics. They wouldn't want to reinforce Darling's message to business - you are better off sticking with/switching to Labour. Would they? Reviewing the content of his speech there was far more for them than Labour's core vote. Which suggests to my that my instantaneous assessment was not too wide of the mark:
No doubt this is budget for growth, employment opportunity with debt under control.
Time to get out on the doorstep.