If this is true then Alastair Darling will throw a small crumb in the right direction today:

Chancellor Alistair Darling is due to announce in his pre-Budget report he intends to raise the top rate of income tax in the future, the BBC learns.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said the move would break a Labour pledge held ever since Tony Blair came to power in the 1997 election.

He said sources suggested that after the next election a new 45% rate could apply to incomes above £150,000 a year.

It also breaks a tradition of no increase that has been in place for far too long.

I am depressed at the thought of VAT cuts, on which more soon.

And there are better ways of raising tax on the wealthy than increasing their tax rate, per se. NIC on investment income and higher class 1 national insurance rates are two, simply because they are hard to avoid. But this would still be welcome. The wealthiest have their part to play in this process: that part begins now.