Another US political gimmick comes flying our way.
In April this year, the rising megastar of Democrat politics, US senator Barack Obama, brought in a bill forcing total disclosure of all federal spending and grants - the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.
US taxpayers would be able to look up online exactly where there money was going.
Now, following a couple of fact-finding missions to Washington earlier this year, our own shadow chancellor, George Osborne, is planning to pick up the idea and run with it. And he is using a snappier soundbite - "Google your taxes."
Under a bill the Tories will introduce in the Lords, the similar-sounding "government spending transparency bill", the Treasury would be forced to maintain a website detailing every item of expenditure over £25,000.
Have the Conservatives thought this through? Some Quaker pacifist groups already make themselves tax "martyrs" by refusing to pay the proportion of their taxes spent on the military. Will this website not make it easier for all manner of individual lobby groups to start deducting their tax bill for pet hates?
Well, yes. In the small print of the bill, it reveals that all spending on "national security" will be exempt from public scrutiny. In fact, the purpose of the exercise is to wheedle out more traditional Tory bêtes noires - spending on public sector salaries, ministerial travel, focus groups etc. That'll please the Taxpayers' Alliance.
