Time was the announcement of Lib Dem taxation policies would have been almost entirely ignored. And, if they were covered, the focus would have been exclusively on the ‘U-turn’ element of yesterday’s announcement that the party has dropped its less-than-a-year-old pledge to cut income tax by 4p in favour of raising the personal tax allowance threshold to £10,000.

But that time was Before Vince. Today, there is much positive coverage (in the former broadsheets anyway) of the Lib Dems’ tax-cutting pledge. Let’s start with The Independent’s glowing editorial:

… the Liberal Democrats have been ahead of the pack in

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The Lib Dem press release headline is stark: Wasteful VAT cut only benefiting the rich. (It’s also, whisper it gently, not 100% accurate: for ‘only’ read ‘mostly (ish)’).

Here’s what Lib Dem shadow chief financial secretary Jeremy Browne has to say about the party’s research showing that the VAT ’savings work out at an average of over £9 a week for the richest households, while poorer households are saving less than £3, despite recent claims from Gordon Brown that families would save at least £5 a week’:

The Government’s defence of its wasteful VAT cut continues to unravel. Its benefits

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Over the last week, Lib Dem Voice has invited the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the party and the current state of British politics. Many thanks to the almost 200 of you who completed it; we’ll be publishing the results on LDV over the next few days.

First up, we asked about the Lib Dems’ policy on tax: Nick Clegg this week announced that the Lib Dems would no longer find it possible to cut the overall burden of taxation because of the current economic crisis, as had been announced in last year’s Make It Happen policy document. The party will continue to pledge to cut the taxes of low- and middle-income earners, though, funded by raising taxes for the wealthiest. Which of these statements best represents your view?

Here’s what you told us:

8.3% – Nick Clegg was wrong to drop the party’s pledge to cut the overall burden of taxation
8.3% – Pledging to cut taxes at all, even for the lowest paid, in the current economic circumstances is unrealistic
3.1% – Don’t know

Here’s a selection of your comments:

Last summer, when Nick Clegg launched the party’s Make It Happen policy statement, he made a bold declaration for a Lib Dem leader: that we would “get wasteful government spending under control, and look for ways to cut the overall tax burden.”

Today, Nick conceded in an interview with today’s Financial Times what has become increasingly obvious since the collapse of Lehman’s in the autumn, and the plunge of Britain’s economy into full-blown recession – that it’s simply not possible now to cut the overall burden of taxation:

Nick Clegg yesterday abandoned the Liberal Democrats’ short-lived pledge to go

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In his 2008 conference speech, Nick Clegg promised the Liberal Democrats would soon spell out exactly how the party would fund its policy priorities – new spending on Lib Dem policies, including tax cuts for the vast majority of citizens:

I want this to be the most progressive – most redistributive – tax plan ever put forward by a British political party. Using just a little of the money the government wastes every day. To help people in their everyday lives. That doesn’t mean cutting help for the poorest, of course. It doesn’t mean stopping vital investment in hospitals and

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LDV reported this week on the Scottish Lib Dems’ decision to open talks with the SNP, following the casting vote rejection by the Holyrood parliament of the nationalists’ £33bn budget. In its budget analysis, The Scotsman poses the question, Why did the Lib Dems change their tune?

The article begins by mounting a fierce attack on the Scottish Lib Dems for ditching their principles:

Why had the party, which had adhered to its principle of a 2p cut in income tax throughout the process, suddenly thrown it all away to offer the SNP its support in getting the Budget through?

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