Ken also warns us off David Miliband - as a 'disappointment'. All this right-wing talk and action was understandable when Labour were nervous after 18 years of Tory rule - but not now. We are going to be massacred in next weeks elections if...
we don't change and change quick. Brown needs to show some courage.
Personally I think Brown is finished - he had his brief honeymoon when he could have won an election but he cowardly blew it. Now Labour MPs and supporters are fed up, in fact we are furious. What is the point of being in government if this is all we have to offer. This kowtowing to the Tories and the Tory press is not even winning us votes - we are facing anihilation. What do we have to lose by governing for the people.
Would re-structuring council tax, so that it is fairer, really lose us votes? Will taxing the rich to take the poorest workers out of tax really be a vote loser? The furore over the 10p rate is the perfect opportunity - either Brown completely changes tack or we get rid of him. If we get rid of him now, maybe we can save Labour in local government. This matters if we want to win the next general election.
People do not want the Tories, especially the poorest voters who rely on us. They just want us to govern for the poorest. If we find this backbone then we may be surprised at the support we engender. People have changed from the Thatcher era and the 10p tax rate gives us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate this is a social democrat country not a Tory one.
Personally I think Brown is finished - he had his brief honeymoon when he could have won an election but he cowardly blew it. Now Labour MPs and supporters are fed up, in fact we are furious. What is the point of being in government if this is all we have to offer. This kowtowing to the Tories and the Tory press is not even winning us votes - we are facing anihilation. What do we have to lose by governing for the people.
Would re-structuring council tax, so that it is fairer, really lose us votes? Will taxing the rich to take the poorest workers out of tax really be a vote loser? The furore over the 10p rate is the perfect opportunity - either Brown completely changes tack or we get rid of him. If we get rid of him now, maybe we can save Labour in local government. This matters if we want to win the next general election.
People do not want the Tories, especially the poorest voters who rely on us. They just want us to govern for the poorest. If we find this backbone then we may be surprised at the support we engender. People have changed from the Thatcher era and the 10p tax rate gives us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate this is a social democrat country not a Tory one.
I think you are correct in many ways. Unfortunatly many people are only just starting to notice that domestic politics have been drifting towards the centre since the 1997 election. Because the Tories are slow dimwits it took them longer to realise where they needed to drift towards (although it would have been sooner if Portillo had become leader)therefore UK politics has finnaly reached its destination in the centre-right. There is no longer a mainstream mildly socialist party. People will now see the little change in manifesto between the 3 parties and will vote Tory. It is a dark era for the labour party. All that can be done is get a true leftist as the leader to restore our repuation among the socialists. Red Ken is not an option as he is a proven megalomaniac. We need fresh blood and fast.
ReplyDelete"especially the poorest voters who rely on us"
ReplyDeleteD'you mean those that you tax too heavily and then grudgingly give them something back as tax credits if they fill in dozens of pages of intrusive forms every time there is a 'change in circumstances', which leads to the renowned 70%-plus effective tax rate?
Wouldn't a £10,000 tax-free personal allowance be a better place to start?
A 10k personal allowance would give everyone a tax cut - i.e it is very expensive (also anyone earning under this would gain less - so hardly ideal. As you and I both know, we need a citizens income to address poverty properly.
ReplyDelete"People do not want the Tories", but more people want them than the Broonies!
ReplyDeletePS What's wrong with giving everyone a tax cut!?! Total tax revenues could rise as people currently too idle to work find that work finally pays more than the social.
If 2m immigrants can find work in ten years, 2m idle UK residents could have got jobs too if they had wanted them.
Cut unemployments and work pays even more.
Please please please,
ReplyDeleteKeep Brown as Labour leader.
Please.
I said "a good place to start", reducing benefits withdrawal rate is next, followed by maybe reducing the threshold for higher rate tax, while simultaneously reducing the higher rate (and increasing the basic rate, if necessary) so that everything is taxed at the same rate and then keep bodging until you arrive at the Citizen's Income/Flat tax model.
ReplyDeleteAnywya, what's "expensive" about allowing people to keep more of their own income?
"what's "expensive" about allowing people to keep more of their own income?"
ReplyDeleteSocialists don't seem to view the money people earn as theirs, they are simply holding it in trust for our glorious leaders.
Even with a change of leader I suspect it is too late now. It comes to something when various Tory spokespersons manage to sound more green, and keener on civil liberties, than anyone in the Labour govt.
ReplyDeleteWould anyone else be any better than Brown? All the people so far suggested as possible replacements as leader seem to me to be just as bad if not worse.
So who is Labour going to replace Brown with? The only credible candidate is Jack Straw and he is to the right of Brown. The fact is, Labour has tried to square the circle over this last 11 years and that is just impossible. You can't be generous to millionaires and the poor at the same time. The recession is going to force it to choose sides, and because it has so compromised its principles, it will choose the rich. I think we need a new workers party.
ReplyDeleteFalco, Mark: You seem to think the rich earn their money - very few deserve what they get - this is effectively 'theft' from the low paid. It is socialists who have the real morals in this debate. What gives the game away is the IHT debate. This is money that is totally unearned (you can't argue with that fact)- yet you lot defend its scrapping as some moral principle, unbelievable!
ReplyDeletePZT, Stephen - I think it is too late. Brown was always going to be a disaster. I reckon we need a revolution inside the Labour Party - John Denham and PR - I know, I am dreaming
ReplyDelete