transparent ploy to save Gordon Brown and win votes for the Crewe Byelection. On the road to fair taxation this demonstrates that where there is a will - there is a way and change can happen very quickly indeed - just like when the Tories abolished the poll tax and put VAT up to 17.5% on a panicky day in 1990.
This has just opened up a £2.7bn hole in public finances with no idea of where the government is going to get the money. If the Tories had proposed this in an election campaign we would have had a field day. Also how long before the Dail Mail finds people who have just crossed over into the 40% tax band due to that threshold being dropped?
We in the Labour party have got to say enough is enough, we cannot go on with this weak leadership from Brown bowing to every public opinion whim and every Daily Mail campaign. We have to make the argument for public services and have the bravery to tax those who can afford to pay for it, not those who cannot afford it just to win cheap votes - the Inheritance Tax giveaway to the richest 6% and the scrapping of the 10p tax rate to give modest gains to middle earners, may have pleased the Daily Mail for one day, but in the long run it destroys progressive politics and plays right into the Tory hands.
When are we going to realise that the Tories can always give more money to the richest - and trying to copy them will do nothing to win us votes. The majority of people, even of the better off understand that fair taxation means helping the lowest earners - it is a shame that Brown does not realise this.
Of course, David Cameron and the Tories are being totally dishonest on this issue (like they are on every other issue). The Tories opposed the introduction of the 10p tax rate in the first place, so to have the gall to criticise the government for scrapping it takes some arrogance and hypocrisy. Remember Cameron is the man who supported Section 28, called wind farms 'bird blenders', but now pretends he is for gay rights and green issues. The Tories will up taxes for those on low incomes just like they did last time. Let's hear them apologise for what they did in the 80s and 90s. And for those who think the improvement in attitudes to gay people and other minorities has come about by accident under a Labour government, we will find out under the next Tory government, The omens are already bad - David Cameron and the Tories are currently trying to stop Lesbians having access to IVF - the old prejudices of the Tories die hard. I suppose we will find out. Maybe it is just childhood and teenage memories but the late seventies seemed a happy time, it was the depressions of the 80s and 90s that remind me of hard times. The Tories may speak new Labour language but does anyone really believe they have changed - thanks to Brown's incompetence and cowardice (how Labour MPs must wish he called that election in August last year) - we are now facing a cruel Tory Toff lording it over us once again.
This has just opened up a £2.7bn hole in public finances with no idea of where the government is going to get the money. If the Tories had proposed this in an election campaign we would have had a field day. Also how long before the Dail Mail finds people who have just crossed over into the 40% tax band due to that threshold being dropped?
We in the Labour party have got to say enough is enough, we cannot go on with this weak leadership from Brown bowing to every public opinion whim and every Daily Mail campaign. We have to make the argument for public services and have the bravery to tax those who can afford to pay for it, not those who cannot afford it just to win cheap votes - the Inheritance Tax giveaway to the richest 6% and the scrapping of the 10p tax rate to give modest gains to middle earners, may have pleased the Daily Mail for one day, but in the long run it destroys progressive politics and plays right into the Tory hands.
When are we going to realise that the Tories can always give more money to the richest - and trying to copy them will do nothing to win us votes. The majority of people, even of the better off understand that fair taxation means helping the lowest earners - it is a shame that Brown does not realise this.
Of course, David Cameron and the Tories are being totally dishonest on this issue (like they are on every other issue). The Tories opposed the introduction of the 10p tax rate in the first place, so to have the gall to criticise the government for scrapping it takes some arrogance and hypocrisy. Remember Cameron is the man who supported Section 28, called wind farms 'bird blenders', but now pretends he is for gay rights and green issues. The Tories will up taxes for those on low incomes just like they did last time. Let's hear them apologise for what they did in the 80s and 90s. And for those who think the improvement in attitudes to gay people and other minorities has come about by accident under a Labour government, we will find out under the next Tory government, The omens are already bad - David Cameron and the Tories are currently trying to stop Lesbians having access to IVF - the old prejudices of the Tories die hard. I suppose we will find out. Maybe it is just childhood and teenage memories but the late seventies seemed a happy time, it was the depressions of the 80s and 90s that remind me of hard times. The Tories may speak new Labour language but does anyone really believe they have changed - thanks to Brown's incompetence and cowardice (how Labour MPs must wish he called that election in August last year) - we are now facing a cruel Tory Toff lording it over us once again.
No comments:
Post a Comment