So more of the same then (Tories tax increase pledges)

[DaveB]

I was just implying that the fact that they got the Stamp duty threshold wrong meant that you couldn't trust the feckers to do anything right.

Oh, I wasnt implying that you could trust them, just that their tax policies actually make more sense than anyone elses atm. Not that it takes much. I wouldn't trust a politician further than I could throw a binliner stuffed with their charred and dismembered corpse.

[Mailman]

Except their green tax windfall, which they are "going to increase because after all, its only fair".

The tories are falling in to the same trap labour has, that everything can be solved with a tax (like an increase in the greentax to help combat global warming...bwaaaaaahahahahaa ).

AND...why just concentrate on income tax, how bout they deal with all the farken stealth taxes that are out there, like tv licence tax and so on?

I know, its only fair that we continue to pay large amounts of tax so they can be fritted awayon state benefits

Mailman

[wendigo100]

I for one agree with what he is saying.

Me too. The UK is currently running at a deficit, which is growing. That's probably not a good time to cut back one of your income streams.

And it takes away a lot of New Labour's ammunition - if tax-cuts are off the agenda, so is the sacking of nurses, teachers and policemen which, incredibly, is believed by a large chunk of the unwashed.

Hmm. Actually New Labour are making a good job of sacking nurses without Cameron's help. Where did all that money go?

[hyperD]

Cameron is being fairly smart. At the last two elections, the traditional Tory mandate of tax cuts was met with the full force of liebour spin proclaiming the nasty Tories were going to take away your buses, pensions, nurses and children. liebour had almost managed to make the Tories, particularly Howard, look like the Children Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. This was so reinforced in the public domain that it became a knee-jerk response as proved by a recent poll: an policy that was agreed as good was then deemed bad once the public found out it was a Tory idea.

The journalists and liebour are desperate for Cameron to state his policies so that:

(a) They can write about something and debunk it
(b) That liebour can steal it and use it as their own or debunk it

Cameron's first goal is to gain the middle ground and persuade the ambivalent voters that the party is one to lead and undo the mess created by liebour. Mentioning small state will get the civil servants ticking the red box come election time.

He doesn’t need to have a set of policies yet that would be meaningless in 3 years time. He has to create a sturdy brand, a direction and a maturity that the public feel confident with.

He doesn’t need to attack liebour: their chickens are coming home to roost what with high national debt, increasing interest rates, increasing unemployment. Low interest rates and increasing house prices have become liebour’s emperors new clothes and salve for the common, but foolish man.

There will be nothing left to borrow soon and then the perceived wealth will vanish revealing the incompetence of this malicious chancellor.

Neatly stepping in will be the Tory party as the only option available to sort out, once again, the mess that leibour have left the country with.

Don’t be fooled by the press, the Mirror especially as this week, fed by liebour spin doctors (notice the flood of bad Tory news the last few days? Coincidence? No.) they are braying for tax cuts which he will NOT make. Tebbit is being used as a useful foil as the dying old Tory that is no longer relevant in today’s world.

Cameron is playing a very clever game.

But so will liebour. It will be an interesting election.

[Mailman]

The only danger is in this clever game supposedly being played out by the tories doesnt actually turn in to anything other than the usual tax increases.

BUT they could take a stand on stealth taxes. Side step income tax cuts altogether and go for all the stealth taxes that have been imposed and increased by labour in the last 10 years.

Mailman

[hyperD]

But that's the whole point! It would be Election Suicide Part III if they do mention it. The association of tax cuts and public service cuts is so engrained in the electorate that for liebour, it would be like taking candy from a baby come 2009/2010.

The irony is that they will have to make cuts: public expenditure, huge reform, small state, sacking 600,000 civil servants, quangoes etc

But not as soon as they get in: the balance sheets are totally fecked - we don't even allow for the fact that there's an extra £26 billion off the balance sheets because they are deemed as "investments" (PFIs).

liebour is emulating their electorate: borrowing deeper and deeper to continue spending and pretending everything is OK.

gordo's hoping he can move on quickly and blame his new chancellor for the mess.

[malvolio]

You haven't heard Osbourne's speech then. He refuses to write the 2009 budget in 2006 (although with the clear but unspoken assumption he would be writing it in 2009) since he doesn't know what sort of a mess he will be sorting out. He did say he will shift the taxation basis from personal to corporate, he did say they will incentivise the lower paid by simplifying the system (again, saying and doing will be two different problems, I suspect), he did say he would consider transferable tax-free bands between husband and wife to encourage stay-at-home mothers, he did say, very strongly, that they are in favour of smaller governments and lower taxes as a core principle. From that you can deduce that they have agreed to look at the whole situation at a time when they can actually do something about it.


I think we will see more concrete proposals in good time. Doing them now means they get spun out of sight by Liebour before they get a chance. Don't forget it took Thatcher about 8 years to straighten the incompetent mess she inherited: the way Gay Gordon has snarled things up, it will take longer this time around.

[zathras]

That is a remarkably Good Question, now you mention it...

Consultantancy fees.

[zathras]

You haven't heard Osbourne's speech then. .....He did say he will shift the taxation basis from personal to corporate.

I wonder about this, since most of us who are working as IT Contractors are corporates! (just small ones).

Perhaps what needs to happen is to move taxation from income to consumption.

Taxation needs to simplified. Trouble is that one of the best ways of doing that will be seized on by GB & Co with absolute glee. That is to abolish the tax credits system, accompanied by an increase in the tax thresholds, taking the poorest people out of taxation altogether.

[hyperD]

Taxation needs to simplified. Trouble is that one of the best ways of doing that will be seized on by GB & Co with absolute glee. That is to abolish the tax credits system, accompanied by an increase in the tax thresholds, taking the poorest people out of taxation altogether.

Agreed, but I don't think that gordon will let go of his pet project somehow. It would be a great loss of face. Unless he was PM maybe and Osborne had stated a policy that the Tories would be going for Flat Tax System...