He has stuck by his guns and got a result and is decent enough to praise the Government for changing policy.

Cameron looks bad criticising Brown for changing when he was claiming to want changes.

It seems odd that the Government does something that can be criticized without making things up or over-exaggerating what they've done and the usual "anti-government" critics on this board are strangely silent.

Are they wealthy enough not to care or on benefits so tax increases that make the poorest pay more don't affect them so they don't care?

Why the silence?

zooloo wrote:

Are they wealthy enough not to care or on benefits so tax increases that make the poorest pay more don't affect them so they don't care?

Fair comment. I don't fall into either of those categories. I guess I am more actively interested in policies which chip away at our rights and freedom than I am in fiscal policy. Perhaps I don't care enough about those in financial difficulty.

In my defence, my three largest expenditures are ciggies, petrol and booze, so I have long since been beaten into submission where tax is concerned!

Gordon Brown has fallen into the classic trap. In an effort to establish his "own" government he has cleared out all the establish players who would have run things better, and replaced them with inexperienced people - the bonus is that these inexperienced people will not challenge him either !

B-Liar has several years (in opposition) to build a credible and capable team - Jonathan Powell "ran" Downing Street, Campbell "ran" the press, Brown ran fiscal policy and the Foreign Sec (can't remember who he was now) also ran a steady and tight ship. These were all in place for some time before they won the election and things ran kind-of smoothly.

Brown - who fears a challenge - has swept them away and replaced them with underlings, who have neither experience nor the ability to challenge him. When problems like the tax plans come along they simply don't know how to react quickly and effectively enough.

It was an incredibly stupid decision to "attack" the five million core Labour voters with this plan - an experiened team would not have fallen into this trap.