JUST a few weeks ago, the Liberal Democrats unveiled a "Hit The North" campaign to pour staff and money into dozens of vulnerable Labour seats from the Mersey to the Tyne.

Liverpool Wavertree and Warrington South were just two constituencies set to turn orange, party leader Nick Clegg vowed, as he exploited Gordon Brown's woes to the max.

Now the same Mr Clegg has persuaded the Lib Dem conference in Bournemouth to adopt a radical tax-cutting agenda blatantly designed to outflank the Tories and shore up votes in the South.
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Suddenly, the leader is forced to deny he is a Tory in sandals - scarcely a criticism to win over disillusioned Labour voters in the likes of Liverpool.

Mr Clegg can't square that circle, can he? Oh yes he can - and here's how.

It seems to me that the Lib Dems have come up with a cunning package that allows them to convincingly pose as lefties in Liverpool and tax-cutters in Taunton.

As voters feel the economic squeeze, who can blame Mr Clegg for wanting to ditch the decade- long Lib Dem policy of "everything Labour is spending, plus a bit more".

Hence, his party is now committed to finding £20bn of savings, a large chunk of which will be set aside to cut the tax bills of low and middle-income earners.

But this does not make Mr Clegg "Cameron-lite", as his critics allege.

How can it, when the only people set to gain from Conservative tax plans are millionnaires?

More important, the Lib Dem commitment to redistributing from rich to poor clearly lives on.
In fact, the new tax-and-spend package will raise far more from the most wealthy than a 50p income tax rate - the old policy.

In the party's sights, are those City fatcats exploiting loopholes that Gordon Brown is far too timid to close as he fails, scandalously, to tax the rich properly.

So, hedge fund managers would no longer be allowed to disguise income as capital thereby paying less tax than their cleaners - and the super-rich would lose £7bn of ill-deserved pension relief.

With real passion, Lib Dem treasury spokesman Vince Cable attacked those who "dodge taxes through tax havens or avoidance scams" - words that will not be uttered from Labour lips in Manchester next week

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