The message from Tony Bryer contains these words:
I have never bothered to look back further than 1974 when the system changed but one of my many beefs about Brown (and indeed previous highway robbers) is that while incomes generally have risen in real terms by 50% or more since 1974 the single person allowance has remained at roughly the same real value and Council Tax has risen at much the same rate as incomes. While one cannot expect the Tories to have any concern whatever about those of us on low incomes a supposedly socialist chancellor could perhaps have been expected to reverse the trend to penalise the prudent on low incomes. Next years budget with its headline cut of 2p in the basic rate is typical of Brown, taking from low incomes with the abolition of the 10% band to reward those who might otherwise be tempted to vote Tory.