Brown fights back against Miliband's email, or so it seems

Gordon Brown was never going to let David Miliband start a potential election campaign address the Labour party, without getting his say also. Heres the email to Labour supporters - its just turned up via the usual channels - and here's my response - in blue this time.

Over the ten years I have been Chancellor, the priorities of families across Britain have been my priorities [ that's why social mobility is down and Britain is one of the worse countries in the world to be a child. Marriage rates are down and we have undermined the basis for the Christian family.].

Whether by keeping mortgages low[not my responsibility since I outsourced it straight away], providing the economic stability to deliver record employment[by growing the state sector to a size you can't afford - but they'll all vote for me and that's what matters isn't it ?] and sustained investment in schools[where the few improvements have been due to the previous Conservative governments focus on basics in primary schools - the rest is a massive mess.], this Government has worked hard to support hard working families[there are no marks for effort here - only success, which you've been lacking in].

Living standards have risen, thousands of children and pensioners have been lifted out of poverty and there are over two million more people in work[ combined disability and unemployment rates are at about 3 million [link may need subscription] - as bad or worse then the darkest days as Mrs T saved Britain from people like you].

So I was determined today to continue to put families at the heart of the Budget[unless they earn little in which case their tax went up - ho ho ] with more support for children, for pensioners and for schools.

When Labour came to power in 1997, child benefit was just £11. We've already increased it by over 50 per cent. Today I announced that over the next three years it will go up to £20 a week.

And nine out of ten families also now receive child tax credit, introduced by this Government[ and a spectacular mess - badly administered and taking unnecessary control of peoples lives], to help families with the cost of bringing up children. We are also going to increase this by a further £150 a year.

And to continue our attack on child poverty[as this is a relative measure - MiaS doesn't see how this can get better], the maximum amount of child tax credit will be raised to £75 a week.

These changes will lift another 200,000 children out of poverty.

There's more money for schools as well. Thanks to the hard work of teachers and pupils - and record investment in education[investment produces a return - what return has been shown ? Maths and the Sciences have dropping state pupil rates at top Universities] - we've seen dramatic improvements in school results over the last decade[or a massive slip in standards - which do you believe?].

We'll keep increasing investment in schools so that by 2010, spending per pupil will not be the £2,500 a year it was in 1997 but £6,000 a year[ so it will be over 100% more effective eh ? No ... ].

There's more help for pensioners[voters] as well as we move[haven't done it yet - waiting for wage rise inflation to drop the cost of this - but I want your credit now], as we have promised, to restore the link between the basic state pension and earnings which was broken by the Tories.

By increasing pensioner tax allowances, we will lift 600,000 pensioners out of tax altogether. We also announced plans to raise the threshold on inheritance tax[ see here for what a dirty double deal this really is].

But I also know that [David Cameron is making all the running on the environment] families want more action to help reduce pollution and tackle climate change.

So we are making sure that those motorists who drive cleaner cars will pay less in duty while those with the most polluting vehicles pay more.

We are going to give more encouragement and advice as well to families to help them cut energy bills at home.

All this is only possible, of course, because of the strength and stability of our economy [What no mention of "Tory Boom and Bust" this time - wonder what you know that we don't ?].

Under this Government, Britain continues to enjoy the longest sustained period of economic growth in our history[ This is a devious bit of writing - what he actually says is that Labour have come after the Conservatives set a successful economy and haven't totally screwed it up yet - but if you look at national borrowing and the size of the state you might wonder if they haven't already.].

Unlike the misery - 15 per cent interest rates [which were there for one day as Britain was forced out of the ERM - a policy Gordon Brown supported, but the rest of us have learned from. Brown no doubt thinks that Labour supporters are just too stupid to know this.] and three million out of work [Not that different from today] - caused by the deep recessions of the Tory years [Caused by the disaster of socialism and trade unionism and failed national corporations - all of which you supported you ... going to turn into Devil Kitchen at this rate- calm down and drink less coffee.] , our economy has grown every single year.

And to help business continue to prosper and create jobs,[ I have increased corporation tax on small companies where all the future of our economy comes from - but it pays of the big corporations who don't like the competition] I have cut corporation tax by 2p.

There are already over two million more people in jobs than in 1997 but I want to go further to reward work.

So our economic stability has enabled me to simplify the tax system for families by removing the 10p starting rate of income tax and cutting the basic rate by 2p to just 20p - the lowest basic rate for 75 years [ except for the one I just abolished - and also introduced earlier, but being a Labour supporter you to stupid to know that].

As a result of the changes announced yesterday, a family with two children earning £27,000 will be £500 a year better off.

That's why I believe today's Budget was a Budget for [my campaign to be Prime minister] Britain's future and a Budget for Britain's families.

Yours sincerely,

ps - Labour's Chief Secretary to the Treasury Stephen Timms will be answering your Budget questions next week in a podcast interview .

Update: This from the 18DT gang just fits in too micely ( via Iain Dale and Iain credits Dizzy thinks for first making the link ... )

Gordon Brown is Macavity

This is 18 Doughty Streets take at T.S Eliot's Macavity The Mystery Cat poem with everyone's favourite Chancellor Gordon Brown in the part of the famous Feline.

Has David Miliband started running ?

Just received the following from NuLabour HQ (with minor annotations and comment from MiaS) - and given the same trick was used by Hazel Blears to get her deputy leadership campaign going Man in a Shed wonders if ....

It's David Miliband here - Labour's environment secretary.[ In case you've no idea who I am - and need to vote for me soon]

I wanted to drop you [a hint] a line about the draft bill on climate change and Government's climate change strategy that Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and I published yesterday [ see were all on the same level - Tony before Gordon also]. Climate change is one of the biggest issues today and it needs our values of internationalism and belief in social justice.

The debate on climate change has shifted from whether we need to act to how much we need to do by when [eh - no it hasn't David - perhaps you should have worked harder at School then you won't just have a 'D' in A Levels physics to make these sort is mistakes with ], and the economic implications of doing so. The time is therefore right for the introduction of a strong legal framework in the UK for tackling climate change. The draft Climate Change Bill is the first of its kind for any country[ MiaS will give credit where credit is due - to David Cameron here ].

The Government has shown consistent leadership in the field of climate change by setting bold targets and pursuing ambitious policies [but delivering raising CO2 emmissions - not that I mind that much] . We are committed to securing a strong multilateral agreement beyond 2012, and within the EU, we are pushing hard for ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets, and to move to a low-carbon economy over time. At home, we have already shown progress in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and are set to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly double our Kyoto target.

In summary the Bill:
· makes challenging carbon dioxide reductions targets for 2020 and 2050 legally binding;[ When we will all be enjoying our generous state funded pensions and won't be responsible for the mess that results from these decisions.]
· introduces a system of 'carbon budgeting' capping emissions over five-year periods;
· creates a new independent body to advise on the setting of carbon budgets and to report on Government progress;[ Yes - the climate needs more committees !]
· contains enabling powers to make future policies to control emissions quicker and easier to introduce; and
· introduces a new system of Government reporting to Parliament including on climate change adaptation policies. [ MiaS predicts this will never last more than 2 years ]

[And gets me a last chance to address all of you potential party voters members before the leadership election.]

Taken together these measures create a coherent framework that [I get a higher profile] will ensure we achieve reductions in emissions [well no they won't] whilst maintaining a strong and growing economy and high levels of social welfare [losing jobs and ruining the economy helps here how ? And don't bother with that leading the low carbon economy bullshit stuff - that's just "The White Heat of TEchnology" rebranded green. It was dishonest then - its a down right lie now ].

Yours truly, [Vote for !]

David Miliband
Environment Secretary

ps if you'd like to ask me a question about the Climate Change Bill click here>>.I'll be answering your questions via podcast interview on 20 March so make sure you visit labour.org.uk/labourspodcast to hear my response. [Sorry links removed to avoid NuLabour tracking]