Two-for-one on Tory fibs

The former PR flack must be grateful that he's changed career. A commercial ad which told such shameless porkies would be banned straight away by the Advertising Standards Authority.

But in politics - much to Cameron and Nick Clegg's relief - there's no punishment for lying to the public or breaking the solemnest of promises.

So the Prime Minister can get away with claiming the coalition "are paying down Britain's debts" when the truth is that his crazed, dogmatic assault on public spending has sent debt skyrocketing.

The situation is so bleak that even the IMF - chief campaigner for global austerity - has had to warn Britain to ease off on the cuts with a strong hint we risk plunging into triple-dip recession if not.

Cameron and George Osborne won't listen, of course. Neither has any interest in cutting Britain's debt. Nor do they care if their cuts doom this country to years of depression.

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They are out to tear down the welfare state and destroy whichever of our public services they can't carve up and sell off to their cronies in big business.

Meanwhile Cameron is employing those PR skills to spin, deceive and obscure his true aims until the Tories' demolition job is complete.

And he put the same dark arts to use in Davos with a headline-grabbing promise to crack down on tax avoiders - a promise he has no intention of keeping.

If Cameron really cared a jot about the issue he wouldn't be sacking thousands of tax inspectors, wreaking havoc with the ability of HM Revenue and Customs to track down tax-dodgers. And he would have acted long ago to tighten up Britain's own tax code.

Instead he talks airily of global action on tax avoidance - which leaves him a handy get-out. In a year or two's time when nothing has been done, he can just shrug and blame other countries for failing to agree.

And the likes of Amazon and Starbucks will remain free to dodge hundreds of millions in tax. Just the way our staggeringly dishonest Prime Minister wants it.

War on schools

Another week, another fact-free Tory attack on teachers. But today's blether about "failing" state schools was more than just the usual right-wing propaganda aimed at rubbishing Britain's superb public services.

It's part of a concerted campaign to undermine state schools and replace them with unaccountable, expensive, effectively privatised academies.

This privatisation by stealth is being carried out against the wishes of voters, against the advice of teachers and against the interests of pupils who will get a worse education thanks to Michael Gove and co.

Academies don't have to follow the national curriculum so their private owners are free to teach creationism or any other rubbish they see fit.

And, like other privatisation scams such as rail, they cost the public purse far more than if they'd been left where they belong, in public hands.

No-one should be fooled for a minute. It's Gove's academies which are flawed and failing, not our state schools.