£40.5bn extra a year and he wonders why there's child poverty

Only a couple more hours and Gordon will giving his final Budget to Parliament. There will be much patting on the back by his loyal followers, though probably mostly by himself. He will claim the longest period of economic growth in the history of mankind and beyond and take all the credit for it (ignoring the rise of China and the stable global economy and the fact that inflation is rising at a concerning rate in the UK). He will also probably fail to point out the incredible levels of tax we are now paying - as Wat Tyler helpfully points out, annual taxes are £40.5bn higher in real (2007-08) terms compared to when he first took over; that's 2.9% of national income, or around £1300 for every family in Britain! One of the big areas that Brown will be throwing his money generously at will be tackling child poverty. A worthy cause I hear you say.

But why is Mr Brown so surprised that child poverty is at alarming levels in the UK? He is taking £40.5bn extra of us a year for goodness sake! And why is he going to tackle this by giving tax credits? Surely the fact that he is resorting to tax credits is a spectacular admittance that his tax system does not work. And why give tax credits - surely the most sensible and effective thing to have done is not have the tax in the first place. While Gordon will do his very best to spin these tax credits as his one man crusade to rid the world of poverty, if you read between the lines the truth is it is his taxation policy that have kept these kids in poverty in the first place.