Despite continual denials by Tony Blair, Gordon Brown has now admitted that, despite the promise not to increase tax at all, the tax burden under Labour has in fact risen from 35.2 per cent of national income at the time of the last election to 38.80 per cent today.

That's an increase of £25 billion - equivalent to nearly 10p on the basic rate of income tax.

The government plans to spend faster than the growth in the economy mean that, if Labour was to win the next election, taxes would go on rising.

Tax payers now need to ask themselves whether they have seen public service improvements to justify these huge increases and whether or not they are happy to pay further increases to fund more Labour promises.

-Mary Mears, Kipling Avenue, Brighton