Gordon Brown's webcast

Have just watched and (only just) heard the webcast with Gordon Brown. Be prepared for low level sound!

Although he wasn't asked my question directly, many queried the abolition of the 10% starting rate of tax.

His response was that increases in child benefit, child tax credits, raising the tax threshold for pensioners and dropping the basic rate from 22% to 20% would compensate for the loss.

The 10% band was first introduced by Gordon Brown in 1999, who promised at the time that it would result in nearly two million people seeing their income tax bills cut in half.

At time of the Budget announcement in March 2007, the Treasury denied that abolition of the 10% rate represented a policy U-turn and insisted that it had been an interim measure to protect the low paid before the arrival of targeted tax credits aimed at families with children and pensioners. It added that big increases in personal allowances would also leave pensioner households hundreds of pounds better off.

But I, like Arrabella Weir (who hosted the webchat), Frank Field and many others, remain sceptical.