There are no secrets between us, dear reader, so I shall not hide from you that last night I passed on the leaders’ appearances on Sky and instead read the letters of Evelyn Waugh and laughed like a drain throughout. I recommend them for this election campaign; they are rude, subversive and truthful, and you won’t get that latter quality in any of the manifestos.
But there was in fact one manifesto commitment that brought me up short and I’m only surprised that it made it on to the BBC headlines yesterday. The SDP is proposing a transferable tax allowance for married couples with children. So, if you’re a spouse who stays at home to mind the children, you can transfer your entire allowance, a bit over £12,500 a year, to the household earner so a couple will only start paying tax above £25,000. Quite a decent sum, no?
