The broadsheet press were setting Sir Menzies Campbell up for a lambasting if he failed to get his tax proposals unamemnded at conference yesterday. This morning did they let Ming delight in the victory, not a change mainly they largely attempted to clutch a defeat story from the clutches of victory.
A quick scan of this mornings papers shows that the political editors obviously see the Liberal Democrat tax plans only on how they affect their own pockets. Most of them either ignored or buried the benfits that these radical redistributive taxes brought to the most needy in society.
The Times had a strapline in the side bar saying Lib Dems vote for higher tax plan, which is not true for the majority of people. And their article is headlined Plans to Squeeze the wealthy is victory for leadership. Heaven know what they would have written if the 50p tax rate had been retained as well. It takes a full 18 paragraphs of the article before they even start to mention the benefits of the tax proposals to the vast majority of the population.
The Torygraph leads with 'Green' Liberal Democrats target wealthy Start by mention the top 2 million being worse off and not the bottom 2 million being lifted out of income tax. Only the very last phrase mentions those who benefit from the policy 'his [Ming Campbell's] determination to redistribute wealth in favour of the disadvantaged in society.'
The Grauniad does give a blanced view in their article however, again the article starts mentioning potential tensions. However, they do have a list of key proposals at the end as a summary.
Only the Independent starts with the good news and stays upbeat throughout. But strangely the article has Labour quoted as attacking us by attacking the poorer end. Labour obviously want to ignore the fact that the poorest will benefit from tax cuts, increased threasholds and will not be affected as greatly by environmental taxes as they don't buy new cars and are not the greatest users of airlines.
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