She's gone

Writing on Friday evening, it seems the best we will get is for the removal of Dawn Primarolo's name from the HM Treasury website as Paymaster General. No announcement of a replacement as yet, but rumours abound that a more talented replacement will be announced soon; a lobotomised Mickey Mouse is the odds-on bookies' favourite.

So, time it is for a political obituary. Red Dawn, as she used to be known, was PG for eight years, and was a junior government minister responsible, inter alia, for the following:

• Strategic oversight of taxation as a whole, including overall responsibility for the Finance Bill, closer working between Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise (including with other departments), and European and international tax issues;


• Departmental Minister for Inland Revenue and the Valuation Office;


• Personal taxation (except company car tax, savings and pensions), national insurance contributions and tax credits;


• Direct business taxation and tax aspects of the enterprise agenda, including: corporation tax, North Sea taxation, share schemes, small firms and venture capital;


• Capital Gains Tax;


• Inheritance Tax;


• Treasury interest in childcare issues;


• Regulatory Reform Minister for the Chancellor's departments; and


• Welfare Reform Group (welfare fraud).

Not specifically mentioned in the above job description (which is lifted from a 2003 version of the HM Treasury website, since replaced) is responsibility for the introduction and implementation of tax credits.

A policy implemented by the PG with a resultant £2BN to £5BN waste of public money and which, according to the CAB, has been effected so badly that the most needy and deserving of families have been threatened [by HMRC] with repossession or eviction and have needed recourse to Salvation Army food parcels.

But, tish and pish, since when did giving two hoots about the great unwashed electorate get in the way of a good gig ?

Not wanting to be too resentful of the weighty tomes of bad tax law which the ooh-so-talented Dawn has left us for generations to come, we should also take stock of her achievements. Listed below are those we can think of: