Brown's Political Pre Budget Report

Last week's pre-budget report, revealed Labour's true character, wasting the last chance to prove they have a credible plan to pay back the huge national debt they have created. What the Government announced was effectively a pre-election report.

Gordon Brown stands charged of the most serious allegation - that he has overruled the advice of the Treasury to start reducing the deficit, putting his own political interests ahead of the economic interests of the nation.

The central measure in the PBR was a tax on jobs which hits everyone earning over £20,000 - well below the national average wage. We now know that a Labour victory at the 2010 election would mean £7.8 billion higher taxes: £310 more per family in National Insurance, costing £200 a year on someone earning £30,000 a year, or £60 on average earnings of around £23,000; a £440m inheritance tax rise; a £440m phone tax; a £220m tax on workplace canteens; a £500m pension tax rise.

Yet, even with these tax hikes there is no credible plan to cut the deficit and all the hard decisions to do so will have to be taken after the election.

Most depressing is the cynical attempt to present a permanent increase in benefits, including child benefit and disability living allowance, when the reality is a temporary increase for the period of the election, followed by a real terms cut the following year.

Gordon Brown has decided this election should be about class, taxing middle England while at the same time misleading those most in need. Only by voting Conservative when the election comes can you get the change the country needs.