Their message is essentially, 'we care'. Rising above the nasty 'tribal' politics of left v right, the Lib Dems present themselves as an organisation that will deliver a more just society through higher taxation. I know, I know, tax is meant to be a coma-inducing topic. But, unlike my friends at spiked , I find it an endlessly fascinating subject. Not so much in terms of how much of it I have to pay, but how taxation itself has become a metaphor for philanthropy and a generally perceived panacea for all society's ills.
High tax is good, low tax is evil.
Question the orthodoxy of high tax and Kennedy and Blair will repeat ad infinitum 'schools'n'hospitals' until your ears begin to melt. But wait a minute, reports the same non-aligned thinktank, investment in the same period in schools, hospitals and transport has sunk to its lowest level since the Second World War. I think it is fair to say that most people either believe in high taxation and high expenditure or low taxation and low expenditure. It sounds as bizarre as the Conservatives' don't tax'n'spend programme. But the Lib Dems promise nothing of the sort, only asserting that an 'extra penny on income tax' will be spent on education - a mantra just as mindless and evasive as 'schools'n'hospitals'.