The Liberal Democrats no longer enjoy the trust of… anybody at all, really. Much like so-called centrist parties across Europe, they have done pretty much anything that their Coalition partners have demanded, doing the exact reverse of their promises made in 2010 with remarkable philosophical ease. It is therefore of little surprise that they are now preparing to betray the electorate on a further pledge: the Mansion Tax.
I have already discussed the Mansion Tax in some detail (search for it on the left if you’d care to remind yourself of what I wrote) and I considered it a good policy drawn up by the Lib Dems. I was delighted when Ed Miliband recently proposed its introduction to fund the restoration of the 10p tax band. At the time, the Liberal Democrats muttered about “policy grabbing”: it was a policy that apparently “belonged” to the Liberal Democrats. Which is why I’m mildly surprised that the party will be voting against legislation for it tabled today by the Labour Party.
Vince Cable has accused Labour of “playing party political games”. I would put it another way: Labour are testing his colleagues’ commitment to a fair tax system days before they vote for a collection of brutal spending cuts. Labour is doing what Oppositions are meant to do: holding Governments to account for their words and actions. It also tests the waters for legislation to be presented by the next Labour government. Will the Nationalist parties support the Mansion Tax? The Green Party will, but will Respect’s George Galloway bother to turn up to the House of Commons?
In a way that the Liberal Democrats have perfected over the past 25 years, they shout from the rooftops (other cliches are available) about their opponents’ failings, claim that they are somehow better, and then twist their account of events to suit them. As somebody said to me “Lib Dems talk like socialists and vote like Tories”. All I have to say is that a vote against taxing the richest few thousand in the country will speak louder volumes than any excuses made after that.
