Miliband and Johnson cobble together holding position on a graduate tax

by Paul Goodman

Ed Miliband wants a graduate tax.  Alan Johnson doesn't.  We referred to the latter publicly rubbishing the idea as recently last Saturday.

Behind the Times paywall this morning lurks a compromise position which has clearly been carefully cobbled together.  The paper's headline is -

"£9,000 is too much. A graduate tax is the only fair way".

Far be it from any journalist to criticise any publication for hyping a headline, but the key section of the piece actually says -

"Ed Miliband, John Denham and I are working to construct a fair system that restores the principles we established in the 2004 Act. We are now seeing how casually the variable fees system can be distorted with such damaging effects. It is in these circumstances that there is a strong case for a graduate tax, which may offer a fairer way of sharing costs between individuals and government."

So that's all clear then. (Not.)

This one will run and run.  Or rather lurch...hobble...crawl...