Enemies of Reason Poundshop potshots at the media moral maze.

Don’t get done, get non-dom

How generous of Lord Ashcroft to finally reveal his tax (avoiding) status. And how wonderful of him to promise that he will start paying tax properly, soon, if the law is changed. How jolly decent of him. Well, I suppose that wraps everything up nicely and means that it's all OK, and we don't need to worry about it, then?

Except... no. You hope at times that politicians won't descend to the level of six-year-olds - I say 'descend' but in all probability it's ascend from their usual poo-throwing state - but already Ashcroft's mates have rounded on Labour, saying "that boy did it first!" and "he started it!" and "I'm telling!"

It's lamentable. If you want to be involved with politics in this country, particularly if you're making or amending laws, you should be paying tax like everyone else. That's the top and bottom of it. Roaring "But, but but, it's not fair! They're doing it as well!" isn't a defence. It's infantile. Yes, everyone should pay tax properly, meaning everyone, meaning your multi-million-pound donor who sits in the House of Lords yet seems to think his role as a citizen is a fairly opt-in and opt-out affair. And if there are equally snake-like rascals on the Labour side, them too.

I think this whole business will blow over quite quickly, anyway. There's not the appetite to go for the Tories in the press, despite their miserably weak campaign so far. If you took a quick glance at the front page of today's Telegraph, for example, you'd be forgiven for thinking the Conservative Party was cruising towards a comfortable landslide - I hope all that confident use of the future tense doesn't go and bite them on the bum.

Thank goodness the Tory win is definitely going to happen, and just in case you're unsure, there's BoJo up the top to try and convince you. I was hoping for a bit of political insight from someone who isn't a close friend of David Cameron, so that should make really interesting reading; I imagine he'll take a really objective view of why Gordon Brown shouldn't be Prime Minister and why his schoolmate should. Oh, and there's a bit of woman-hating from Melanie McDonagh if you need a break from all the relentless Conservative Party delights.

I don't know. It may well turn around again. Labour may lose ground and the Tories may well get that landslide. All I do know is that I haven't heard a tremendous amount about what these people are actually standing for. Cameron talks of 'duty', pushing the abstract nonsense that his ancestor Tony Blair enjoyed so much, but what about things to vote for that will improve the country? How about some of them, to get any of us excited? And how about, instead of 'welcoming' the fact that your massive donor mate has finally admitted what so many people suspected all along, saying that he should do his 'duty' right now - and pay his full taxes?

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