On the banking crisis, he can't say "I told you so" because he didn't.
He can't say "we had a better answer" because he didn't propose one and he's given his backing to the Brown plan.On what looks like a looming recession, he won't say "let's cut taxes to stimulate the economy" - as the American and Australian governments have - because he's already declared that "the cupboard is bare" and that as a "fiscal conservative" he's not prepared to borrow to finance tax cuts.
Thus, he's limited to proposing small-scale policy responses - yesterday a VAT holiday for small businesses, today a short-term tax cut for them - or to saying, like the Irishman in the old joke, "I wouldn't have started here".
But on one of the proposals is he actually breaking the law?
Fraser Nelson thinks that he might be
The Sixth EU VAT Directive mandates all states to apply VAT the same way as long as the main rate is a minimum of 15% and the discounted rate at least 5%. Room for manoeuvre was tightened to almost zero two years ago in the EU Recast Sixth Directive. You don’t mess with this, as the Blair government found out when it lost its fight to grant companies the right to reclaim VAT spent on fuel.
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