Tories left behind by current crisis

10.04.36am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 30th Sep 2008

Vince Cable is widely respected for his economic expertise.

The Tories are playing a hopeless game of catch up with the current financial crisis, says Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor. Mr Cable said:

"The Tories are once again playing a hopeless game of catch up when dealing with the current financial crisis.

"Rather than making tough economic choices over tax and spending, George Osborne is simply passing the buck to local councils, expecting them to make arbitrary cuts.

"This false promise of freezing council tax will be entirely dependent on individual councils being able to cut their budgets, which is likely to leave the poorest areas with continuing council tax rises.

"George Osborne's vague aspiration of national tax cuts at some point in the future is of absolutely no help to the millions of families struggling to make ends meet now.

"This country needs a party that is willing to take the tough choices today to reduce the tax burden for people on low and middle incomes hit hardest by the financial crisis."