This bankrupt Scottish duo

WHAT a pathetic spectacle in the Commons yesterday as Chancellor Alastair Darling and our Cheshire Cat Prime Minister Gordon Brown brazenly lapped up Conservative indignation that they had stolen Tory ideas on taxation in an obviously panic move to staunch the new found popularity of David Cameron.

Today's newspapers reflected the mood. Will voters be fooled by such gross misconduct of this Thieving Magpie government?

If the Scottish mafia of Messrs Brown and Darling have to resort to stealing their opponent's policies on tax and spend, they they can hardly complain when I say they are bankrupt. Devoid of ideas themselves, they should examine their consciences. Perhaps Brown should not call an election and admit his administration has run out of steam, letting the voters decide who is best to look after their interests.

And of course, as is always the case with Labour budgets, the small print of this shabby statement reveals that what seems a generous gesture is daylight robbery by any other name. 

I wish a television interviewer had had the gumption to challenge Darling to look straight into the camera and tell the nation that inheritance tax changes and airline passenger duties were in the original draft of his Comprehensive Spending Review. We know he couldn't. And if he had attempted to lie his way out of the hole he is rapidly digging for himself, then surely the Tories would properly have called for his resignation.