I do find all this stuff in today's newspapers about David Cameron 'not ruling out tax rises' as being really irritating. Its so childish. No wonder young people are turned off politics. I watched Gavin Estler interviewing the Shadow Chancellor on Newsnight last night, and his line of questioning was puerile in the extreme. George Osborne needed the patience of Job. All the Newsnight producer wanted was to be able to run a clip which portrayed (incorrectly but who cares about that Gavin) the Conservatives as being a tax raising party. No matter how often the answer came back that its just not possible to make promises without knowing the position that the outgoing Government will leave, Mr Estler kept on asking the same inane question. Mind you this didn't stop Nick Clegg promising to cut taxes - no matter what the state of the nation's finances. He really is an irresponsible flop as a pary leader.
Its so ridiculous that even I don't feel that I can state the obvious on my blog, because someone will leap out of the bowels of the media and try to use me to embarrass the Party. It happened to me once before. During the last General Election, there was row about the revaluation of property for Council Tax purposes. I was the Conservative Finance Spokesman in the National Assembly and had said a few months before that for a property based taxation system to have integrity, regular revaluations are needed. Now this had been hedged in caveats, but it made no difference. For one day during the last General Election campaign, I was the lead story across the UK - driven by the Labour Party rebuttal unit. So I've learned my lesson. Despite the childishness of the pathetic attempt to portray today's Shadow Cabinet as a tax raisers, and the temptation to write the bl***y obvious, I will leave it alone. Nothing to stop sensible comments though.
6 comments:
Not sure I agree with you here, Glyn. If the Conservatives were completely determined to cut taxes they could do it - and promise to do it now.
Or they could simply say that they intended to cut taxes and had a plan to do so, but would have to keep this plan under review and and any such review that showed it was no longer possible would be made clear to the public as the next General Election approached.
The fact is that with a 20 point lead the Tories don't feel as if they need to promise to cut taxes to get in - hence they aren't doing so.
anon - As far as Gavin Estler is concerned the next question would be "So anon, this review you speak of may mean that you might be forced to even increase taxes in the short term?"
At last, a bit of honesty from the Conservatives over taxation. A pity it is not reciprocated by the media.
I, too, was surprised by press reports that Nick Clegg aimed to reduce the overall tax burden. Vince Cable would never let him get away with that.
It turns out that what he is aiming for is a rebalancing of the tax system, so that lower-income families pay less and those who can afford it, and polluters, pay more. Hardly new, and well within the grain of Liberal Democrat rank-and-file thinking.
Sorry Frank but that isn't what Clegg said. I've just seen him on TV telling us that Lib Dem policy at the next General Election will be to reduce the overall burden of taxation - irrespective of whatever financial position the Treasury is in when he becomes Prime Minister. Even you can see that such a position lacks any credibility whatsoever. Time to dump him I think.
Glyn,
The destructive effect of the unregulated free market, which you and your Tory colleagues are such uncritical disiciples of, will give an incoming Tory chancellor little option other than to increase taxes should you win. I think the BBC is just trying to find a Tory honest enough to admit it. Seems they failed.....
"Unregulated free market" - ur joking yes? Businesses in the UK, including small businesses, are regulated up the yahzoo. Also, government/tax payer funded agencies such as the BBC are encroaching onto the private sector. Gordon Brown has placed enormous burdens on small businesses. It has got to the point where small businesses are frightened of hiring permanent staff for fear of being sued on any number of accounts.
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