Peter Mandelson was on pretty good form on the Today programme this morning, but he did start to sound slippery when Jim Naughtie asked him whether taxes would eventually have to go up pay for the tax cuts we're expecting in the pre-budget report next week.
"I've already said that if you take action now to expand borrowing, then you know you have to make a structural adjustment later on," Mandelson replied. Which I think we can take as a yes.
Mandelson is not the first minister to resort to euphemism when faced with this question. For the record, here are a couple of other phrases that we've heard in recent days from ministers talking about tax rises:
"Living within your means" – Alistair Darling used this last week, in an interview with the Independent. After stressing the need to put money into the economy now, he said that it was also important to "live within your means" and that he would demonstrate how he would do so in the medium term.
"Getting back to equilibrium" – Tony McNulty, the employment minister, used this last week on the Daily Politics, when Andrew Neil pressed him about how the government would pay for tax cuts (although, to be fair, McNulty did eventually use the word "taxation").
While I'm on the subject of being fair, I should admit that I've pinched these quotes from a Conservative press release which Alan Duncan, the shadow business secretary, issued today.
Duncan wanted to make the point that "no amount of spin can hide the economic reality that reckless borrowing will leave the British people with higher debts and higher taxes in years to come".
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