If the Sunday Mail is to be believed, George Osborne is about to make another serious mistake, his first being to support gay marriage, or so we are led to believe. The report says that the Chancellor is in talks with Nick Clegg to impose a mansion tax via the back door by introducing new council tax bands on homes worth more than £1 million. This, we are told, is "in return for freezing welfare benefits". First, caving into Mr Clegg is an indication, if one was needed, how damaging this Coalition government is for the country, and, second, it reveals how shortsighted Mr Osborne is politically. Not only do the well off already pay punitive rates of tax, but the Chancellor would be attacking Conservative voters, who already have serious doubts about the path the Party is taking, or not taking, should I say. It is not until we really slash government expenditure, lower taxes further and quicker and negotiate a trading position only in Europe that this country will ever have a chance of economic recovery on a scale that will allow the government to generate the wealth it needs to pay for things like welfare and the NHS. Attacking people because of the size of their home is not the right or equitable way to fund government expenditure.