Darling's new tax rate won't work. It never has. When Nigel Lawson made his historic reduction of the higher tax rate from 60% to 40%, the Treasury ended up taking more money in tax, not less. Those earning high salaries didn't need to pay their accountants so much money to find ways of avoiding paying the tax - they just paid it.

The same will happen this time. Darling won't accrue the tax he predicted. It's not serious politics, it's backward thinking pandering to the uninformed and makes the Treasury look foolish. All energies should be concentrated in helping the low paid (such as bringing back the 10% tax band which should never have been abolished) and encouraging the rest - everything else is window dressing.