Dr Dracula and the Lib Dem Blood Bank

Memo to my Lib Dem friends:

If you invite Dr. Dracula to perform the operation, don't complain if he drains your blood in the process.

George Osborne

Lib Dem Chancellor

During the election campaign both Labour and Tories used the formula that they "had no plans to increase VAT". Labour probably meant it, and would have worked hard to avoid increasing VAT. The Tories obviously did not mean it, as George Osborne has shown by his enthusiastic raising of VAT from 17.5% to 20%, a huge hike.

But the Lib Dems were adamant: they would not raise VAT. It was and is a regressive tax, it hits the poor much harder than it hits the rich. If you earn £200 a week you will spend all of it on subsistence. If VAT goes up by 2.5% it takes an immediate 2.5% out of your pocket, and if you spend all of your income just to survive, then it is  a very hard hit indeed. All of which was true then and is true now.

So who should we blame for the VAT increase? The Tories are the Tories, and the nasty party can be expected to act nastily. That's not to excuse, but to explain. If you invite Dr. Dracula to perform the operation, don't complain if he drains your blood in the process.

It's the Lib Dems that have most questions to answer: they opposed VAT increases with a vehemence that was wonderful to behold. Now they embrace it with exactly the same enthusiasm.

Simon Hughes, Vince Cable, even Nick Clegg, they all looked very uncomfortable as Harriet Harman challenged Lib Dem MPs to vote for the budget with its enormous benefits cuts and VAT rises. The question is: will the MPsfollow their leaders into the Tory lobby in the budget votes, or will they follow their conscience and their election promises and vote it down?

And as the Lib Dem blood drains away, will the Tories fatten on the feast...?