Madsen has long pointed out that we here at the ASI have a slightly strange job. We think up odd ideas which are regarded as those of idiots howling in the wilderness. Some years later they're mainstream and everyone is wondering why they weren't brought in earlier. What intrigues me is that one of those very strange ideas which I am (at least partially) responsible for is becoming mainstream, indeed is being enacted.

Back when the Living Wage was first proposed I did the calculations that showed that that Living Wage, post tax, was actually what the minimum wage would be if not tax were paid on the minimum wage. While the numbers have all moved around a little this is still true: a no income tax and no NI minimum wage would be higher than the post tax Living Wage.

I also said that this was mad and have been stamping around shouting that it's insane that people working part time on said minimum wage are part of the taxation of income system ever since. With repeats ever time the Living Wage or minimum wage calculations are done again.

That the idea of equating the tax allowance with the full year minimum wage got into the UKIP manifesto, given my background, is really not a surprise. But that it's now entirely mainstream is most pleasing:

The Treasury released research showing that Britain now outstrips Germany, which had the most generous personal allowance system in 2010, after a series of increases in the personal allowance which stood at £6,475 in 2010. It will increase to £10,000 from Sunday, the start of the new tax year, and will increase to £10,500 next year – a month before the general election. The higher allowance on Sunday will represent a tax cut of £700 a year for more than 26 million people and will mean that three million slip out of paying tax altogether. The Lib Dems, whose first pledge in their manifesto for the 2010 general election was to increase the tax free personal allowance to £10,000, have pledged to increase it to £12,500 in the next parliament if they return to government. This would raise the prospect of exempting workers on the minimum wage from paying income tax.

Calling it "generous" that the State does not reach so harshly into the pocketbopoks of the working poor revolts me. But the direction of travel is to be applauded. And it won't matter a damn that it will be some votestealer that gets the plaudits for such an obviously sensible move. The world will still be a better place for it.