Taxing times in Brown's Britain

In a deliberate bid to reach out to middle-class voters, who have borne

the brunt of Mr Brown's stealth taxes since 1997, the Prime Minister says he has no plans to raise income tax rates over the lifetime of the

next Parliament.

How very generous of him. What he did not say is that Labour promised this in 2005 – and was then forced to impose a 50p tax rate for high-earners. Can Labour's leader be taken at his word any longer?

Significantly, Mr Brown overlooked the Treasury's decision to freeze income tax bands and not raise them in line with inflation – a decision that means workers fortunate enough to receive a pay rise will be taxed on a greater proportion of their extra income.

And, just as crucially, Labour cannot – and will not – rule out a future rise in VAT, even though they regularly deride the Tories for even contemplating such a move that will particularly penalise those on low incomes.

An obfuscating Mr Brown glossed over these realities at his party's carefully-choreographed manifesto launch.

Yet, having admitted that the public's trust in politics needs to be restored, the least that the voters deserve is a party leader who is straight with them on the one issue that concerns every household in the country.

This lack of candour – Mr Brown chose to focus on the themes of national renewal and the restoration of New Labour's Blairite values – is unlikely to appease voters who are none the wiser about how the party can halve the deficit while honouring existing spending plans, such as increasing the minimum wage in line with inflation.

Voters know that the next few years are going to be challenging, and involve difficult decisions.

It's why many families have already tightened their financial belts out of necessity. But, if they can recognise this, why can Gordon Brown not understand this reality?

For, effectively, all that he was proposing yesterday was five years more of the same – reckless spending, tinkering at the margins of public services and the inevitability of higher taxes once the election has been fought.