One statistic to remember about today’s 10p tax rate announcements

Today’s announced tax changes from the government, designed to deal with the fallout from the abolition of the 10p tax rate, will cost £2.7 billion (to be funded by extra borrowing).

An expensive way for Gordon Brown’s government to try to dig itself out of the hole it dug for itself. What is more, only £630 million of that £2.7 billion will go to people who lost out in the first place due to the abolition of the 10p rate.

In other words – more than three-quarters of the cost of today’s announcement won’t go to the people it’s designed to help.

Whatever happened to prudent financial policies I wonder?