Gordon's 10p climbdown

The right-wing press are predictably pillorying Gordon Brown for making concessions following the abolition of the 10p tax rate. But he was right to do so. The difference between this and other rebellions was profound: in other rebellions, the backbenchers were often the ones defending the indefensible, seeking to drag the government back to its pre-New Labour approach. On this occasion, it was the government doing so. Put simply, it was penalising those who took on low paid work, rather than staying on benefits. The next step should be to raise thresholds to do more to make work pay - without the complexity of too many tax credits.