The Conservatives are going on local government and – somewhat cheekily if, as Labour and the Lib Dems claim, the Tories backed council tax revaluation as recently as last week – they are calling revaluation "a stealth tax". They do admit, however, that their pledge not to revalue the council tax in the next parliament "is a new policy proposal".
10am: "Most people will have just opened their council tax bills with horror – my message to them is you don't have to settle for this," says Mr Howard, as party aides hand out the Tories' local government manifesto for the other elections that are happening on May 5 – the local elections in 37 local authorities, and four directly elected mayors.
On stage with Mr Howard are Caroline Spelman (the first woman on the Tory podium so far in this campaign), Oliver Letwin (taking a break from defending his narrow majority in Dorset) and the Tory leader of Kent county council, Sir Sandy Bruce-Lockheart.
Ms Spelman calls the revaluation "a ticking tax timebomb".
10.10am: Ms Spelman reminds voters that the Tories are promising a council tax rebate for pensioners of up to half, or a maximum of £500, and says they will abolish the "divisive, unelected regional authorities" as well as various other local quangos.
"Council tax has been forced up – as a stealth tax," claims Sir Sandy, saying national directives forced local auithorities to increase spending on various priorities, without an equivalent rise in the national grant to councils. He's backing the scrapping of the revaluation, although presumably in a personal capacity rather than in his other role as chair of the cross-party local government association.
Mr Howard says you can't believe a word Mr Blair says, when it is pointed out that Labour claims the revaluation will be "revenue neutral". Mr Howard says it wasn't revenue neutral in Wales. Accused of "shameless opportunism" by Andrew Marr for reversing their position, Mr Howard says the Tory party always voted against a revaluation in parliament and in any case the pledge not to revalue is "only for this parliament". He adds that the revaluation may be "a stealthy way of filling [Gordon Brown's] black hole".
10.20am: The Channel Five reporter embarrasses himself by asking if the Tories "will rule out a revaluation in the next parliament?" Groans all round, as this is what Mr Howard has just explicitly said. Channel Four wants to know why, if this is such a good idea, it wasn't in last week's manifesto. The answer appears to be to do with a new survey by the Halifax Building Society.
The Express asks about "the flouting of planning laws by minorities" being an issue at the local elections, but Mr Howard refuses to rise to the bait of a follow-up about a possible Met police investigation into allegations of incitement to racial hatred.
Your blogger does not get called to ask his question, but, just for posterity, it would have been: "Mr Letwin, as one of the people responsible for dreaming up the council tax in the 1990s, how often did you then envisage it would be revalued?"
