I am starting to strongly believe that Cameron's leadership is marked by a number of significant moments - things that define him to the general public and, so far anyway, they are greeted with opinion poll bounces. The Inheritance Tax announcement was one such "moment", as was his 07 conference speech (the one without notes). Today, although events elsewhere mean it won't get as much attention, we may have seen another moment - on tax on savings.
Savers have been affected by the necessary reductions in interest rates whilst pensioners have suffered from a decade of Gordon Brown's tax raids. They are currently being championed by, amongst others, the Daily Telegraphy who should warmly welcome Cameron's pledges.
As well as supporting pensioners and savers during this turbulent time of financial turmoil, the Conservatives will take further economic measures to help the victims of Gordon Brown's recession.
The Conservatives' proposals include improving the flow of credit and saving jobs with a £50 billion National Loan Guarantee Scheme, freezing council tax for two years by cutting wasteful government spending, encouraging companies to hire again through a tax break for new jobs, reducing employment costs for small businesses by cutting National Insurance and helping them with cashflow by delaying VAT bills for six months.
Labour's tax and debt bombshells are taking Britain to the brink of bankruptcy. Their answer to the debt crisis is yet more borrowing. It is clear that the longer Labour is in power, the worse the economic situation will become.
Only the Conservatives can make the long-term decisions to get the public finances back under control with the proposed National Loan Guarantee Scheme and an Office for Budget Responsibility which would ensure that no Labour Government could bankrupt the country again.
It's a good plan and Cameron has announced it well.
We'll see how significant a "moment" it is and largely that will depend on the media coverage.
1 comment:
There are reasons why an Office for Budget Responsibility is not a particularly good idea, some of the are even appealing from a conservative point of view.
Firstly, it involves the creation of a large government quango with it's accompanying crew of civil servants. Secondly it could tie the hands of a Conservative government just as much as a Labour one, it could prevent a potential future leader implementing a bold ambitious tax cut for example. Finally, importance of a balanced budget is not a foregone conclusion, there is considerable disagreement among economists on what size of deficit/surplus is acceptable. The decisions of an office for budget responsibility will lead to both winnders and losers, I'd believe it's better that politicians rather than beaurocrats make these decisions.
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