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I was sorely tempted to leave my column empty this week to allow readers to insert their own comments. I had already had to tear up one draft of my editorial when the corporation tax changes were announced and after the chancellor’s interview on Sunday and the dramatic statement on Monday, I am, for once, at a loss as to what to write.
So, I thought I would take a leaf out of the great Alistair Cooke’s book. During the closing stages of the Watergate scandal it was pretty clear that the president was going to have to resign, but at the time that Cooke had to submit his recording of the latest Letter from America, Richard Nixon still was clinging to power.
In those days, the recording was made on a Wednesday in the US and flown to the UK for broadcast on a Friday evening. So he narrated events up to the point of recording and then ended ‘the rest you know’.
Nixon resigned on the Friday morning so when Letter from America was broadcast later that evening Cooke was congratulated on the wonderfully dramatic way in which he had ended his broadcast.
It was only much later that the truth came out. Had Nixon not resigned listeners might well have switched off the radio (or was it still the wireless?) wondering what on earth Cooke was talking about.
So back to tax.
It has been perhaps the most dramatic few days in the history of taxation in the UK. What seemed impossible one day becomes routine the next: reversal after reversal; a new chancellor; the virtual scrapping of an entire budget; and the promise of a completely new one.
The rest you know.
If you do one thing...
Pinch yourself – no, it is not a dream.
