20% VAT threat from both sides?

On of the Tory fear tactics employed by Labour activists and bloggers going into this all-important general election year is the claim that the Conservatives will raise VAT to 20%.

Indeed this claim, whether true or not (I have not independently verified the facts as of yet), was carried by Medway Labour blogger Tristan Osborne.

Now it is true (although I probably should not be admitting this) that Osborne and myself agree on more things than many readers would probably expect, but probably never more so than when he talked about “ruthless attacks … coming back to haunt”.

For an article that appeared on Times Online on Monday contained an interesting quote:

Mr Darling also said he was unable to promise that Labour would not raise VAT to 20 per cent so soon after it returned to 17.5 per cent at the start of the year – something Mr Brown and Ed Balls have repeatedly suggested the Tories might do.

In other words, attacks on the Conservative stance on VAT, which is yet to be set in stone, are transparently hypocritical when Labour’s own Chancellor may be about to sail the same course.

One thing is for certain, however. I cannot agree with a VAT rise to 20%, much the same as I could not agree with the rise back to 17.5% when British people were continuing to struggle with money.

But then my time will come, much like yours and everybody else’s, later this year when we get to vote this government into oblivion…

That’s unless they haven’t imploded before then, of course!