WE don't need to tell Gordon brown what a mess he has made of the abolition of the 10p tax rate.

It is a clear embarrassment for the government and has been seized upon by the opposition in typically opportunist fashion.

It seems clear that the winners in all this will be people who earn more than £18,000.

The losers are those earning under £18,000 and ineligible for working tax credits along with part-time workers on insufficient hours to qualify for credits.

That accounts for many thousands here in Gwent.

Now the government faces a potential backbench rebellion, the Treasury looks like a department happy to take more from the poorest in our society and opposition MPs will make the most of this with soundbites to whoever will listen.

Labour MPs will have to face the choice of either voting with the government or against it and defeating the entire Budget.

We're not interested in this political point scoring.

What we are interested in is our readers who will be worse off as a result of this.

Unless the government is prepared to take a drastic step and re-write its budget, it will be so badly hit by this that we may even see the first signs of what damage it has caused at the forthcoming local elections.

Although local elections should be fought on local issues, voters who feel badly let down by a party will inevitably show their feelings at grassroots level.