Clegg's bold tax cutting plans

The Independent gives about as much detail as if available so far on Nick Clegg's bold tax cutting plans, which are being announced today. A policy document called "Vision and Values" (which sounds like a pre-manifesto to me) is mentioned and it all sounds very exciting. Spending cuts, tax cuts. A bit like the Conservative manifesto 1992....no - only joking.

This is some of what the Indie says:

Nick Clegg will today commit the Liberal Democrats to cutting the overall tax burden as he relaunches his party as one committed to fairness for people on low and middle incomes.
He will attempt to undercut Labour and the Conservatives by pledging to slash Whitehall spending to pay for tax reductions, and will reaffirm his commitment to lowering the standard rate of income tax to 16p in the pound. The Liberal Democrat leader will say: "We will get wasteful government spending under control and give the economy a boost by cutting taxes from the bottom for those who need the most help. If there is money to spare, we won't simply spend it. We are looking for ways to cut the overall tax burden."
Mr Clegg will try to cut through the increasingly dominant battle between Labour and the Tories by launching a statement of values designed to outline the big ideas he believes will help double the number of Liberal Democrat MPs within two general elections. He will argue that his party can deliver in a way the main parties cannot, saying: "If you want Britain to be fairer, you know who will make it happen – we will. Labour can't, the Tories won't."

Most of this is a "sexy" re-announcement of our 4p<->green tax plans from last year. Thank goodness they are getting a bit of publicity. I have often said that they are our best kept secret.

What is new (as far as I can make out) is the aspiration to cut the overall tax burden and this is underpinned, if such a substantive phrase can be used for it, by a proposal of £20 billion worth of spending cuts which are to be defined.

Obviously, the nub or rub of the whole scheme are these cuts. Nick Clegg obviously needs to set out what areas these cuts will be impact. It seems he has laid out some broad direction for Jeremy Browne, who has the task to go away and detail where the cuts will be. Broad areas which have been suggested by Clegg include:

....scrapping the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform and moving parts of the Civil Service to cheaper locations outside London.

Fairly non-controversial stuff on the face of it. HOWEVER - whatever happened to the Department of Energy? In the challenging times ahead I think we need a separate energy department in government as there was after the 1970s oil crisis. As far as I can make it out it was subsumed into the BERR so I think it needs to be pulled out of any "scrapping" of this department.

I look forward to seeing the policy document, overall it is welcome that some existing policies (including some constitutional policies such as reducing the number of MPs) are being relaunched and that Clegg is giving a high visibility relaunch to them - with a bit of a twist.

The LibDems do get drowned out by the other parties, so it is very welcome that Nick Clegg is making a decent attempt to be heard above the general hubbub.