Labour doesn't keep its word on spending This week has provided ample evidence that the Left's capacity to say one thing and do another remains undiminished. It is hard to blame the businessman John Mills for choosing the "most tax-efficient" method of donating to the Labour Party, namely giving shares rather than cash. But this newspaper's disclosure that the Opposition advised its wealthy benefactor on how to avoid paying tax on his £1.5 million donation does invite the charge of hypocrisy, given the party's sustained attack on the corporate tax arrangements of others who have been equally reluctant to hand over sizeable chunks of their income to the state. The story has punctured Labour's credibility just at the moment that Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are attempting to neutralise two damaging perceptions: first, that they are congenitally profligate with taxpayers" money, and second, that they would perpetuate a "something for nothing" benefits culture. Earlier this week, the shadow chancellor said he would stick to the Coalition's spending plans if Labour won the general election. Yesterday, Mr Miliband promised to get a grip on the welfare budget. As Jeremy Warner points out below, we have heard both of these promises before - in the run-up to the 1997 election. For a few years, Labour did indeed conform to Tory spending disciplines. Then it turned on the taps again, for the biggest splurge of modern times. The pledge to reform welfare proved equally flimsy. Still, at least Labour had been out of office for almost 18 years by the time Tony Blair made those promises. Mr Miliband, by contrast, was in the Cabinet until just a few years ago, as were most of his front-bench colleagues. And during its 13 years in power they did scandalously little to reform a social security system that Mr Miliband now accepts is too costly, too inefficient and no longer commands public support. The party should, he concedes, have done more to reform incapacity and housing benefit - both of which the Coalition is now wrestling with, in the teeth of Labour opposition. Mr Miliband wants to give the impression that he is on the side of the workers rather than the workshy, because the polls tell him this is popular. Yet instead of acknowledging that the Tories have had the guts to tackle problems Labour left unresolved, he indulges in the fatuous accusation that David Cameron believes "everyone looking for work is a skiver." Such a comment suggests these speeches were more about political positioning than a blueprint for real change. Indeed, in the mid-1990s, it was unclear whether Labour would deliver the things it was promising. We know better now.