Now, I'm in favour of cutting it because it deters enterprise, raised little revenue and smacks of the politics of envy. But, I accept that there are reasonable economic and political arguments for and against. And it is healthy to have rambunctious debate.

But, what I don't get is how - after all that huffing and puffing - when Parliament voted on it (last night), not one of the Labour front-bench bothered to turn up, as reported here. They were there for the debate. I saw them. Some backbench Lab MPs voted against the cut - well just two, in fact: Paul Flynn and Dennis Skinner. But Miliband, Balls et al all abstained.

Sometimes, there are good reasons to abstain. But, having worked themselves into a lather about the 50p tax rate, I am genuinely puzzled that they ended up sitting on the fence en masse.