Tuesday 28 July 2009

"...then offer me the same thing in a different guise ..."

David Cameron warned yesterday that the better-off must share the pain of repairing public finances.

He said tax credits for households on £50,000 a year or more could no longer be justified.
Good point. Surely no-one could argue with that?

But oh, what's this?
The Tory leader also hinted that his flagship inheritance tax cut may take several years to implement - and raised the prospect of new road tolls.

Mr Cameron said: 'In saying to the country that we need to reduce public spending, we need to get the budget balance under control, we've got to be able to demonstrate to people that this is fair and seen to be fair and that everyone is putting their shoulder to the wheel.

'And that means the wealthy have to pay their fair share.'
Dave, Dave, Dave…

The wealthy are already paying their fair share. Talking about it in these terms isn’t going to earn you any brownie points with anyone other than the idiots who believe wealth is a zero-sum game, and if someone has a lot, there’s less for others.

Do you really want to attract idiots like that?
But he risked angering Right-wing MPs by insisting that the budgets for overseas aid and the NHS would not be touched - and would continue to grow. Insulating those areas will mean deeper cuts elsewhere.
We’ve already discussed how bad an idea this is. And it’s not ‘right-wing MPs’ he should be wary of alienating, but voters.

There’s no point telling everyone they have to ‘put their shoulders to the wheel’ if we are then sending some of the product of that labour to people who aren’t within a mile of the wheel at all, never mind that they aren’t also putting their backs into it…
In his toughest message yet on public finances, Mr Cameron said it was time to 'look the British public in the eye' and make it clear 'we are going to cut public spending'. A Tory government would start at the centre by reducing the number of MPs and having fewer ministers.
Now, this is a good thing.

Providing, that is, that quangos and fakecharities don’t simply spring up to carry on where they left off…
Mr Cameron said voters were 'crying out for someone who's going to say "right, we are all in this together, we've got to take these steps together"'.
No, voters are looking for someone to do those things, not say they will…

We had that with New Labour. Are you Blue Labour instead?

After all, you seem to be backtracking on a lot of promises lately. Just like all those other politicians:
On inheritance tax, Mr Cameron said raising the threshold to £1million was something the Tories 'want to do, obviously, in a Parliament' - suggesting it may not be for be several years.

He also confirmed that Labour's new 50p tax rate on people earning £150,000-plus would not be scrapped in the early days of a Tory government. It was a 'bad tax rise', he said, but 'not in the list of things that we can get rid of quickly'.
If it's a bad tax now, how is it that it won't be such a bad tax when you take the reins, Dave?

So why should anyone vote for you, Dave? What have you got that the others haven’t?

On the basis of this, not a lot….

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you Blue Labour instead?


I think Dave is. Clearly CAmeron is happy to win power simply because Labour have ruined the country and been exposed as a a bunch of criminal incompetents. You'd think he'd have more ambition than that?

Dave! tackle immigration head on, the human rights nonsense, no amnesty for illegals, sort out the criminal justice system, abolish inheritance tax as promised, reduce tax, sort out council tax - poll tax instead? LEAD GODDAMMIT! The UK needs leadership not more of the same PC driven loony left committee drivel.

Angry Exile said...

Are you Blue Labour instead?

Yes. He is.

Anonymous said...

S'alright, households on £50k don't qualify for tax credits - or at least if they do it must be so infinitesimally small as to make bugger all difference.

Umbongo said...

JuliaM

Get used to it - Cameron is no different from Blair (although, to be fair, he's an improvement on Brown: mind you Brown even makes Heath look good). Don't kid yourself (actually I don't think you do) that the Conservatives are going to be that different from the present shower: better dressed perhaps, even better looking, but with the same toe-curling pious abasement to today's political fashions (climate change mania, multi-culti lunacy, EU zealotry, "think of the children" etc) and all carried through with endless spin.

Rob said...

Dave, how many of the million+ public sector workers employed by Brown are you going to get rid of? I don't need an exact figure, an estimate to the nearest 10,000 will do.

Come on, Dave, tell us. After all, you want "everyone to put their shoulder to the wheel".

roym said...

ah yes, the poor maligned 150K+ a year earning class. they must feel so disenfranchised right now.

JuliaM said...

"Clearly CAmeron is happy to win power simply because Labour have ruined the country and been exposed as a a bunch of criminal incompetents. You'd think he'd have more ambition than that?"

We don't seem to have politicians who have ambitions any more. At least, not beyond getting to the top so they can go nose deep in the public trough...

"...better dressed perhaps, even better looking, but with the same toe-curling pious abasement to today's political fashions.."

Oh, yes. They have indeed drunk deep of the progressive Kool-aid. I often have to double-check who has said what. It's becoming harder and harder to tell.

"ah yes, the poor maligned 150K+ a year earning class. they must feel so disenfranchised right now."

What, under Labour? I doubt it. They now are mostly employed in the quangos and universities and fakecharities, doing icely fort themselves as they slowly suck the life out of their host...