Half truths and porkies in great profusion

In Prime Minister's Non-answers (PMQ) yesterday we had them all.

The general level of his honesty is revealed in G. Brown's contention that David Cameron was economic adviser to Norman Lamont, and therefore by implication was responsible for the economic difficulties in the early 1990s.

The truth is that the decision by John Major to fix the exchange rate against the D.Mark at an unsustainable level, and failure by our EU partners to support sterling, was the ultimate cause, and G. Brown knows that Cameron was not party to this. In fact Cameron was a very junior member of the Treasury team, and not an economic adviser, but it suits Brown to pretend that he was. It ill becomes MacCavity, who tries to wriggle from all responsibility, to try to smear someone else with something for which they were not responsible.

Of course, with Cameron daring to question Brown on the area where he is master of the universe, and never wrong, it was highly likely that Brown would come out with his usual litany of false and misleading claims. And he did!

1) The UK has only half the unemployment rate of our EU partners. But the problem is that he compared our rate, of claimants, with the French and German rate based on the criteria of the International Labour Office (ILO). If the UK situation is recounted on the ILO basis, while it is lower it is well above half, - more like 75% of that for the EU as a whole, and while ours is rising until recently at least theirs was falling.

2) Inflation in the UK is 2.5%, while in the USA it is 4%. The US figure is not comparable in its methodology, but if it were we know that our inflation rate which takes in a fuller range of prices, including housing, -RPI, were produced it would be of the order of 4.1%. (He used the same trick while comparing the high rate of inflation briefly under the Conservatives, with his own index - CPI which produces a lower figure. This is dishonest.)

3) Inflation under the Conservatives reached 3 million, was his claim. This is not disputable, but again the figure now is lower because of the millions who have discovered that it is better to claim for incapacity than for unemployment. There are currently over 5 million on out of work benefits of all kinds.

4) He has reduced the basic rate of income tax, and the rate of corporation tax. We all saw the falsity of the claims soon after last year's budget. The statement is true as far as it goes, but he simultaneously abolished the 10% band of tax, hitting the poorest most heavily, and adjusting for allowances in the case of corporation tax with the consequence that firms in total paid more!

5) Housing repossessions were only 27,000 last year. True, but they are rising this year now that the credit squeeze is beginning to bite. The present estimate for 2008 is 45,000, but many think that this figure will need upward revision, and unless the trend levels off the number is likely to exceed the peak under the Conservatives in the early 1990s. At some point he may have to eat his words.

6) Banks have also gone "bust"in the US and in other countries in Europe. True, but they arranged quick and effective sale and disposal, unlike the long months of dithering and then nationalisation here, and they have not burdened their taxpayers with the massive risk here.

The Prime Minister is on the defensive, and needed to recite yet again the list of half truths and lies. They are sounding more desperate and less believable each time. We all know from personal experience that there is something wrong with his inflation measure, and his lie that taxes are not going up. Some of us will lose our homes or our jobs over the next few months, and we shall know his optimism was misplaced. Eventually MaCavity will run out of excuses and denials.