A case of premature hypothecation

A common pursuit for lobby correspondents and parliamentary aides today (sorry, yesterday) has been to check how many times Nick Clegg admonished the previous administration for announcing policies to the media before making an obligatory statement to the House.

Whatever the count, it is the turn of the deputy PM to incur the displeasure of the Speaker for announcing his new scheme to tackle youth unemployment to the press before MPs.

As it happens, commentators are already questioning how the government is able to say how much the new youth contract will cost, but not where the money will come from.

Clegg’s aides have hinted that a squeeze on tax credits could provide part of the extra funding needed to go towards the £1bn over three years to subsidise 410,000 new work places.

But Treasury spokesmen have already clarified that there is not strict hypothecation in the tax system involved and that it would be best to see how it all balances out in the Autumn Statement.

Hmmm.