The idea is that the cut in VAT from 17.5 per cent to 15 per cent on top of the base rate reduction to three per cent will stimulate the economy and stave off recession.

I am also reckoning on more expensive to administer "tax credit" announcements.

Labour are relying on an illusion that thanks to them the cost of Christmas will be lower.

The reality is very different, given that the UK has a low manufacturing and export base and our heavy reliance on imports whose prices have soared following the pound's fall.

Expect a tax walloping later on.

With the drop in interest rates, those who save or who rely on their savings for interest have been particularly hard hit.

The cost of consumer borrowing and credit cards has barely changed, but as people focus on that illusory three per cent figure, I predict an increase in personal debt, not a fall.

By far the simplest and cheapest solution would be to increase the personal tax allowances, which would be reflected in pay-packets and take pressure off of wage demands. But this wouldn't make the same juicy headlines. Instead of borrowing and wasting billions on creating a new Ministry of Energy and Climate Change, ID-Cards, databases etc, the money should have been saved.

There are thousands of examples of quangos, ministries and useless bureaucratic junk that are sucking the life out of the economy, while businesses and taxpayers are forced to stump up. And let's not forget the cost of the EU and our sundry overseas military adventures.

But this is a deliberate and desperate tactic as Labour will never have to clear up the mess.

Instead the Conservatives will have to sort it out with as little pain as possible while Labour snipe from the sidelines in the same way that they have been doing here in Harrow.

I hope that I am proven wrong, but am not optimistic.

COUNCILLOR JEREMY ZEID

Conservative

Kenton West