Given

The Lib Dems seem to have been given quite a few concessions. Britain's state pensioners have finally had the link to earnings restored (you have to assume that was LibDem pressure), there'll at least be a review of Britain's nuclear deterrent (though a commitment to having one) and the Inheritance Tax threshold will remain where it is.

But I will scream if I hear one more commentator suggest that the huge raising of the income tax allowance is a major concession. No, it wasn't Tory policy, but it is intrinsically a Tory wet-dream. It's a tax cut. And it's not a tax cut for the worse off, it's a tax cut for the lower middle-classes, exactly the kind of people that the Tories could do with securing before the next election. Who'll get the credit for it? I fear the more successful the Liberal influence over the Tories, the better it will make the Tories look. If the Tories get a full majority next time on the back of successful coalition governance, the voters will be in for a shock.

That's a given.

May 6 2010