Anything you can do...

Hooray for the Conservatives! Does anybody really think that the Chancellor, Alistair Darling, would have announced what, at least for the survivor of a couple, is in effect an immediate doubling of the inheritance tax threshhold in his pre-budget report if the Tories had not taken the wind out of Labour's election sails last week by stating their intention to restrict the tax to millionaires? After all, this is the same Alistair Darling who last year dismissed out of hand a suggestion by one of his own party that the tax should be eased or scrapped. To paraphrase Dr. Johnson - Depend upon it, sir, when a politician knows his electoral future is at stake, it concentrates his mind wonderfully.