Brown U-Turns on marriage tax relief

I see the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Andy Burnham, has given an interview to the Daily Telegraph and basically said that the next step for the Government is too recognise marriage and civil partnership through the tax system.

This comes just a few months after Gordon Brown said he didn't believe in rewarding marriage through the tax system, and it's less than a month since the Deputy Leader Harriet Harman said, to the Labour Conference that,

"sending a message about marriage [means saying] there's something wrong with your family.... We will not stand for that.... That Tory message about marriage is just the same old back to basics. And the truth is that until they drop it, the Tory party is still the nasty party."

This really is starting to get silly now isn't it? I'm guessing that Brown is calculating that because they've been able to get away with stealing policies in the past they can get away with it now.

However, that doesn't work if you (a) do the first one immediately as a panic move after some bad polls and general humiliation, and then (b) do the next theft within the same week. It simply shows that the momentum is with and the agenda is being set by the Tories.

Effectively the Government is no longer leading the country but following the Opposition in the hope of making short term electoral gain. So much for acting in the interests of the country.