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Thursday 8 July 2010

Lib Dems' Broken Promises on VAT

I promised a series on Liberal democrats broken promises, and no series on the Liberal Democrats broken promises can leave out their promise not to raise VAT. Indeed not only did they promise not to put VAT up, they suggested the Tories had a secret VAT bombshell. In Nick Clegg's words "Our plans do not require a rise in VAT. The Tory plans do."

Those who were listening to Vince Cable earlier this year might think that his belief that a rise in VAT would hurt economic growth would suggest that the Liberal Democrats would oppose such a rise. On the other hand, people listening to Vince Cable in late 2008, arguing that a 2.5 per cent cut in VAT would have no significant effect might come to the opposite view. During the election campaign itself, he told the BBC's Jon Sopel that he might raise VAT, despite Nick Clegg's words above. More recently, Vince Cable admitted his VAT claims during the election campaign were designed to "score points".

How could anyone fail to trust them with a record showing such consistency?

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