Well, we can speculate about what caretaker PM Gordon Brown said to Angela Smith last night to dissuade her from shaking his government to its foundations by … errr, resigning as a PPS.
Perhaps one thing was to promise to buy her a 2008 diary, as she still seems to be using one stuck on March 2007 – otherwise one has to ask: how did it take her so long to realise the implications of the abolition of the 10p tax band*? And yes, the same question still applies to all those other whining Labour MPs now being mugged by reality, though presumably not all those MPs have their current constituencies disappearing under boundary changes at the next election.
* Yes of course, the 10p tax band is only being abolished for earned income. There will still be a 10p band for savings income, as well as the existing 10p rate at both lower and basic bands for dividend income … under the changes which were presented as a tax simplification measure. Clear?
