Is the Mirror’s Maguire right – Cameron panicked?

The big political shift in the past 24 hours has been the abandonment by the Tories of their commitment to match Labour spending plans and, instead, start talking about tax cuts.

This is Kevin Maguire’s take on it on the Mirror website: “..Every nurse, teacher, care worker, soldier and their families now has a vested interested in voting Labour at the General Election. No wonder the Prime Minister’s struggling to keep a straight face in his Downing Street bunker..Brown’s enemies have played into his hands, walking into a trap, exposing political bankruptcy in an economic crisis. These days it’s the Tory leader who should be hoping for a second chance..Because Cameron and Shadowy Chancellor George Osborne have screwed up royally”

We saw a touch of the political battle ahead at today’s PMQs with Cameron reiterating his warning that tax cuts now would lead to future tax rises. He asked: “Taxes will have to rise; isn’t that true?”.

The government’s main argument seems to be that nations round the world are following this approach – so why not the UK?

A challenge for Brown is that it is repeatedly going to be put to him that his strategy will inevitably lead to tax increases in the future – something that he refuses to answer and he could start to sound as though he is being evasive. Refusing to answer questions is a powerful charge that can be developed by the opposition.

Mike Smithson