Gordon Brown may be advocating a further fiscal stimulus as a means to promote economic recovery, but, certainly in Britain’s case, implementing such a policy would be reckless in the extreme.
Gordon Brown's G20 mini-bounce seemed to only last 48 Hours. The YouGov poll at the weekend showed a narrowing in the Tory lead to 7%, there is a new Populus poll in tomorrow's Times, which shows Labour flatlining on 30% and a slight increase in the Conservative lead to 13%.
People have not forgotten all those stories in the press about government mismanagement and disastrous waste. Gordon is a fool is he thinks the people have. The electorate want to see belts tightened, want to see waste cut, and want to see an end to massive, intrusive government.
However, no-one wants cuts in health, education, or policing. It is the perennial problem - everyone wants great public services, but no-one wants to pay for them. The next Conservative Government needs to have the guts to say NO MORE!
What angers me is that In 2011 employees and employers will both start to pay an extra 0.5% in national insurance contributions. Top earners will also paying more income tax, with those at the very top (the 400,000, or 1% of all earners, who trouser more than £150,000 a year) hit with a new higher top tax rate of 45%. It is clear from the now infamous cock-up, which resulted in the government mistakenly publishing a document indicating that VAT would rise to 18.5% from 2011, that even bigger tax hikes had been contemplated. But what is true is that from that time the rate of growth of public spending will drop from 1.8% per year to 1.2% per year.
What you have to realize is that public spending has doubled since 1997, in excess of £600bn. And for what? It's not like government has become twice as effective. In reality, I guarantee you could easily cut 15 percent of public spending (that's about £90bn a year) without it having any discernable impact on frontline services. All that's required is the political will to do it.
Gordon Brown's G20 mini-bounce seemed to only last 48 Hours. The YouGov poll at the weekend showed a narrowing in the Tory lead to 7%, there is a new Populus poll in tomorrow's Times, which shows Labour flatlining on 30% and a slight increase in the Conservative lead to 13%.
People have not forgotten all those stories in the press about government mismanagement and disastrous waste. Gordon is a fool is he thinks the people have. The electorate want to see belts tightened, want to see waste cut, and want to see an end to massive, intrusive government.
However, no-one wants cuts in health, education, or policing. It is the perennial problem - everyone wants great public services, but no-one wants to pay for them. The next Conservative Government needs to have the guts to say NO MORE!
What angers me is that In 2011 employees and employers will both start to pay an extra 0.5% in national insurance contributions. Top earners will also paying more income tax, with those at the very top (the 400,000, or 1% of all earners, who trouser more than £150,000 a year) hit with a new higher top tax rate of 45%. It is clear from the now infamous cock-up, which resulted in the government mistakenly publishing a document indicating that VAT would rise to 18.5% from 2011, that even bigger tax hikes had been contemplated. But what is true is that from that time the rate of growth of public spending will drop from 1.8% per year to 1.2% per year.
What you have to realize is that public spending has doubled since 1997, in excess of £600bn. And for what? It's not like government has become twice as effective. In reality, I guarantee you could easily cut 15 percent of public spending (that's about £90bn a year) without it having any discernable impact on frontline services. All that's required is the political will to do it.
Posts
3 comments:
Increase VAT could raise extra cash..... Not just back up to 17.5%.... make it 25%
Higher income tax for the top earners makes perfect sense. You could say it's a... moral imperative!
Post a Comment