Is this a U-Turn?
So despite years of saying they would, now the Labour party says that it will not try to remove the charitable status of private schools. But there is a sting in the tail, the party says it can just legislate instead to make private schools pay VAT and rates.
So nothing much has changed, or has it?
It is not a reversal of policy designed to seduce wealthier voters if you are still going to tax private schools, unless, of course, you think they are too stupid to read beyond the headlines.
Maybe it is because removing charitable status would have been a legal minefield, but just making Eton pay taxes isn’t. But it smells of another climbdown designed, like all the others, to get Labour across the line, at almost any cost.
But the party needs to be careful, it can’t back down on everything controversial, if it wants to be trusted and it has to be trusted to win a general election.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media