George….it’s time to embrace cutting income tax and slashing spending.  That’s a vote winner and it will bring us out of recession a damn sight quicker!

Cutting taxation.

A natural Conservative heartfelt belief.

It’s at our core.

And I hope we start saying it in the election campaign…..but I feel we wont because the Party will fear the attacks from Labour.

The mentality of Brown’s Government is that to raise more revenue it is essential to raise taxation: both in corporation tax and personal tax.  Hence why we saw the rise in personal taxation to 50p on earners above £150,000, (political ‘class war’ issues also played a hand to appease Labour’s traditional hard core vote).

What’s the result of the 50p tax……?  …….higher taxes are yielding LESS revenue as individuals are either using clever accountancy to avoid taxes, they are spending less or some even relocating from the UK, (the infamous Brain Drain).  The rich have less incentive to earn more, and more incentive to dodge tax.

As the Governor of the Bank of England has recognised.  Britain, with the low value of the pound, should be an extremely attractive place to set up business and be a haven for entrepreneurs.  It is also a great time to start, if you have money, to buy and invest in housing and shares as they have hit pretty much rock bottom — pending any seismic future shocks.

So to attract more business and investment to the UK, help turn the tide and bring the economy out of this damaging recession, now is the time that the Government should change tact and CUT TAX IMMEDIATELY. 

Firstly, to cut corporation tax.  Let’s stimulate our business to re-invest and take risks.  Let’s attract more business from abroad, who will of course invest, create much needed jobs, generate more revenue for the exchequer and importantly add to a growing sense of confidence in the business community.  This is surely better to stimulate the ‘engine’ of the economy than build up huge debts and pump money to prop up the economy and create thousands of jobs in the public sector.

Yes, confidence is the key word.  Imagine, a cut in personal taxation today.  It sends a bold message out, injects more money into people’s pockets, which as the slight uplift in retail sales shows, will be followed through into retail spending.  People need confidence and the tax system can be used to stimulate—prod—spur on confidence.  People need that fire lit under them.

This bold move is one that has been achieved in the past.  JFK boldly showed this theory is sound in 1960 and the Irish have clearly demonstrated this with lower corporation tax:  less tax means greater yields.  

And of course we can point to the Thatcher era when low taxes led to increased investment, greater confidence and rising exchequer revenue.  When Chancellor Nigel Lawson cut the top rate of income tax to 40% he unleashed unparalleled wealth creation and the government benefited from taking a smaller piece of a far larger pie. 

But Socialists and Lib Dems disagree vehemently with this and need proof.  Hence hopefully they will learn a lot from the table below taken from official HM Treasury statistics.

Just consider that the richest 1% currently pay 23% of all tax revenues collected.  The richest 5% pay 42% of the tax collected.  Only 11.5% comes from the bottom 50%.  Where should the Government concentrate it’s efforts to stimulate the economy and gain more tax revenue?  It does not take a huge brain to work that out!

“Share of total income liability” is available for selected years.  Expressed as a percentage

Note: from 1999, people taxed as individuals not families

The time has come for the British psyche to realise that the phrase ‘cutting taxes’ does not mean falling exchequer revenues….it means, when done properly, INCREASED exchequer revenues.   Increased revenues means less government debt, it means more employment for all….and guess what….a rise in the general living standards of all.

Let’s hear George Osbourne grab this mantle and if elected, demonstrate these principles in his first budget.

Chancellor Lawson:  He got it…and demonstrated it.  Lower tax = more revenue

Conference seems a long time ago.  I remember travelling home on the train sitting next to David Willets and Cheryl Gillian, full of optimism.  A great Conference.  Never underestimating the task ahead, key was that everything was pointing in the right direction.  George Osborne had just enjoyed the Conference of his life and delivered a speech which tackled the big issues and underlined the economic competence of the Conservatives.  David Cameron had delivered a barn storming speech which left all with hope, (yes that great word that Obama anchors campaigns around), that we were en route to a better future.  This was off the back of a dreadful Labour Conference that saw a less than half empty hall wearily trudge through a week of depression, until Lord Mandelson rallied their spirits, (and his future career prospects), with throws of inspiring rhetoric for the Labour faithful to finally have a sliver of hope themselves.

Things are bleak for this Government.  Indeed, for the country.

And yet…..opinion polls are throwing up mixed results.  Trending is that Conservatives are not dominating as much as we should be.  Local council by election results, are ‘disappointing’,(in the words of ConservativeHome’s Jonathan Isaby.  Iain Dale also asks the question why by-election results are not going our way).  Yes, there are always localised reasons at play at by-election results, and their impact can never be dismissed.  But we are not dominating.  Opinion polls are patchy and not as inspiring as the recent 17% lead polls.  Tim Montgomerie on ConservativeHome has alluded to a drop in Conservatives support post Lisbon Treaty ‘U-Turn’.  Many seem to agree with that sentiment on that blog site.  But there is more to it than Europe.

What is fundamentally true is that the Conservatives have so much ammunition at their disposal, the question why polls are not moving stronger in our favour is a valid one to ask!

Consider what’s happening around us…..

  -           The economy.  First into recession, last out.  And the deepest recession in Europe.  We hurtle catastrophically towards a £1 trillion debt that our children will still be paying off in years to come. Brown has got away with the biggest lie in Political history.  That lie?  That debt has been built up because Brown states he was saving the UK from recession, (actually he would say saving the world from recession but scrub that).  That’s like Tiger Woods saying he had 10 birdies in a round and his wife believing he was talking about Golf!   Brown was building debt way before this recession even started.  In the good times he was spending like a manic gambler at the roulette table, hoping the ball will end on black.  In the words of the IMF:  ‘Imbalances and balance sheet strains had emerged even before the recent global shocks triggered a sharp decline in economic activity’.  ie we were heading into recession and spending too heavily BEFORE the Global shocks took place. 

 -           Unemployment heads towards 3 million, (that’s by official figures), unofficially claims of 6 million seem more accurate.  That’s people’s lives wrecked, on hold, dignity stripped.  Benefits and dependency culture set in.

 -           Class War.  Entrepreneurs discouraged.  Bankers bashed.  Top talent packing their bags to work abroad as UK thumps those very people who can bring us out of slump, create jobs for others and generate tax revenues, pummelled to the ground, with more ferocity than an uppercut from Mike Tyson in his prime, by punitive tax rates.  50% for top earners.  40% threshold frozen.  More on NI.  VAT back up 2.5%.  Penalties on companies that reward bankers who make money, (the very people we need to save and keep in this country, not incentivise to work and benefit New York’s Stock Exchange). 

 -           The Unions start to flex their muscles.  Just as the nation was free from the strangulation and choking hold of the Unions, like in ‘The Shining’ ‘They’re back’!  Strikes on the increase, Union militancy.  Bob Crow back on the telly chanting his monotone messages like a failed XFactor auditionee.  The Post Office, on the brink of collapse, wont modernise, cancerously pumping money into its bottomless pension pit, faced by striking members, and growing competition.  The RMT, getting the Tube drivers out on strike, more often than we enjoy a boiling hot summers day that we can take off our shirts and bathe!  And that comes before the pending winter of discontent as Unions rally against Darling’s 1% pay rise limit for public sector workers.  Who will be out striking first?  Rush down Ladbroke’s and place your bet tonight. 

 -           Our population continues on its inextricable path towards 70 million.  Immigration remains unchecked.  Asylum seekers lost amongst the population.  Our open borders burden the UK putting huge strain on over stretched public services, with the NHS groaning under the weight, school classes getting bigger, new houses being built on green belt, predicted power shortages for the years ahead as we don’t have the power stations to support our surging nation, public transport wheezing and roads at a standstill. 

 -           We are in the midst of a deeply unpopular war.  Over 200 brave soldiers have been returned home in a coffin.  Debates over strategy have been rife.  More concerning than that, real questions over the equipment troops are issued with and the lack of protection eg helicopters, have undermined this Government.  There could not be a more inept and ‘uncaring’ Defence Minister in Bob Ainsworth.

 -           The Iraq enquiry is rapidly tarnishing the reputation of ‘Labour’s greatest Leader’, Tony Blair.  We hear daily about the lack of credible evidence of weapons of mass destruction and the inability of Saddam Hussein’s regime to produce workable ones.  Coded language comes from the Iraq Enquiry that George W Bush wanted a hard line and pushed Blair into it.  Bliar indeed.

 -           A House of Commons with politicians so morally corrupt that make even Ronnie Biggs look respectable.  Yes, you will retort that Conservative politicians have been just as bad.  BUT the Government have been poor in taking any lead in cleaning up this sh*tstorm of a mess.  Cameron, has pushed Brown all the way.  Even this week we hear of Prime Minister Brown repaying £500 for painting a shed!

 -           Europe.  The continued enslavery of the British people continues to the faceless unelected bureaucrats of Europe.  Now we have the dreaded Lisbon Treaty with the instantly forgettable, but powerful. President of the European Union, (Herman Van Rompuy), and Foreign Minister, Cathy Ashton, (a Brit who was as vocal in British politics as Sooty was to Children’s TV!).  Blair and Brown promised a referendum for the British people but it never ever emerged.  Yes, Cameron took some hammering on his so called U-turn but a referendum on a Treaty in force is daft.  Another referendum on whether we have given too much power away, hell yes.  The blame for our European ills lay firmly at Brown’s door.

-           Education, Education, Education.  Blair’s famous pledge that education was his first, second and third priority.  A memorable catch phrase that was almost Turette’s by nature, proved to be as reliable as Amy Whinehouse sticking to drinking coke in a bar all night !   Education failures rack up.  50,000 A-level students miss out on a place at university.  This year 52,000 more people applied to University but only 13,000 extra places were made available.  The number of young people not in employment, education or training (Neet) has leapt by more than 100,000 in the past year.  Government statistics show there are now almost 960,000 16- to 24-year-old Neets in England, more than 230,000 of whom are aged between 16 and 18.  Oh and the flagship policy, SAT’s…teachers aim to boycott them next year!

-           A big brother state that worms its way into every aspect of our lives.  Want to help out at your local school?  Drive friends Children to their Cubs or Girl Guides?  Got to be checked on the anti paedophile register first.

Quite literally I could go on all night listing failure after failure after failure.

Fertile ground to be in Opposition.  Too much to choose from.  Should be Christmas all year round.

Opinion polls should be absolutely hammering Labour for their incompetence.  Criminal incompetence.  But they aren’t.

Some recent polls have put the difference between Conservatives to 10% difference.  Labour commanding a mid – late 20’s position.

Who the hell is being polled?  Who is supporting this shower?

As we head towards an election, the most important in many a lifetime, Conservatives need to open up the gap and generate clear blue water.  This is the ‘Schumacher’ moment when we need to be so far ahead of the field, we need to be lapping not only the back markers but coming up to lap the entire field.  Schumacher never slowed up.  He pummelled his fellow drivers into the ground.  As we must do now.

So what is wrong?

Why are we not opening up more of a gap?

Many commentators say that Conservatives Agenda is not yet bought by the British people.  Voters don’t quite trust us as yet.  They don’t understand what we stand for.  They like nice Mr Cameron but don’t have a feel for what he would do.

Much of this can be brought out in the wash in an election campaign say Conservative campaign team leaders.  Maybe…in them we have to trust!  We are not privy to the campaign they intend to use to convince the people.

But one suggestion I would impart onto David, Eric, George & William is that the key word around the campaigns table must be emotion.  Emotion is what politics lacks.  Emotion means getting personal.  It means relating to the ordinary person in the street.  Emotion creates and bonds loyalty and trust.

Politics today is too focused on debating statistics or policies.  As we all fight the election in the middle ground, choices get confused, differences misunderstood by the public, whose political antenna is not as attuned as Westminster politicians think.  I say we all fight in the middle, the key word is that all parties want to be perceived as in the middle, to attract the largest number of voters.  Matters not that policies may be more left or right wing, the centre is where we all will fight, (rightly or wrongly in your opinion).

Margaret Thatcher and Norman Tebbit had their finger on the pulse of the people.  They spoke in terms that people understood.  They personalised and humanised issues that people could relate to.  Politicians are forgetting that, just as any film director tries to do, it is about getting someone to believe in what they see.  Emotion is created by personalising issues.  Remember when Margaret Thatcher turned complex economic issues into the language that people understood.  On spending she equated the state to the family.  We cannot spend what we cannot afford.  When we are at home, if we cannot afford it, we save and then we can afford it, we buy it.  Simple language but the people loved it.  The housewife spoke!  Powerful and it resonated.  More so that today’s debate which quotes pure stats and percentages that Joe public does not understand…or will try to understand as they worry whether Joe, Stacey or Olly will win the XFactor!

Unemployment is not about a statistic of 3 million people it is about Mr Jones, who worked all his life, bought his own council house, can’t find work, wife fallen ill, daughter can’t afford University, a man depressed, lost his dignity but wants better for his family…and is fighting to earn money.  In him we respect and want to see him do well.

The health service is not about dirty corridors, increases in disease, rising cancer death rates, it is about Mrs Hughes, a mother who has a family of 3 beautiful daughters, husband died at war, who is diagnosed with cancer and facing life’s hardest choices.  How do we help her and her daughters.

Afghanistan is so more more than a statistic 200 dead, it is about John, a brave soldier on the front line who died by roadside ambush, a wife pregnant with his unborn daughter, a family torn apart.  How we help that family of a man who gave the ultimate sacrifice for all of us.

Public debt is not about a figure of trillion pounds.  It is about Mary, who is struggling to pay her mortgage, close to repossession, working for a company that is struggling to get credit, that is laying off workers, (her friends).

Violent crime is not about a percentage.  It is about 8 year old Sarah, whose father went to pick up a takeaway for the family, but never came home as youths taunted him, attacked him and used a knife in a savage unprovoked attack.

David Cameron is a thoroughly decent man.  Post the tragic death of Ivan the public saw a different side to the Politician.  They related to him.  A family man.  A bereaving dad.  A loving husband.  And they could associate with that.  We see less of the personal side of David of late.  That loving family man, the dad, the husband, has been less visible.   The emotion of the man not emanating out.

Some may shout this down.

But just sit and watch ‘Britain’s Got Talent’ or ‘The X Factor’.  Watch how contestant’s are introduced.  How emotion is used to get that tear welling up in your eye.  Get that lump in your throat.  Make you leap our your chair and vote for them because, for that moment in time, ‘they’ matter to you more than anything else.  You support them.  You don’t care paying a phone vote because you feel better in yourself for supporting them.  You feel you are making a difference.  We can all point to stories used on shows like this.  The daughter who was told by her dad to audition for Britain’s Got Talent by a dad, who died suddenly and she is now doing this for him.  Who did not feel emotional.

So, David Cameron, more than anyone, realises the election is not in the bag.  By a long way.  It’s not over until he faces the cameras on election night after Gordon Brown has conceded defeat.

So dangerous waters lie ahead.  Gordon Brown has been getting more confident of late.  The last two PMQ’s have been his strongest for a long time.  Iain Dale even concluded that Brown beat Cameron in one of them.  Unheard of!  The economy will start to turn round in the new year.  Brown must sit by the fire at No.10 with Sarah over a mug of hot chocolate and array of biscuits, (as he can’t decide his favourite), and really laugh.  ‘Sarah, look at how bad a mess everything is and yet look at those polls.  We are only 10% behind!  Even with the state of the UK as it is the Conservatives can’t kill us off.  We could still win this Sarah!’…..as she forlornly and adoringly looks into the eye of her ‘hero’! 

And things can change in politics.  The nightmare scenario still exists.  What if Gordon Brown steps down early next year?  A new Labour Leader emerges, be it Johnson, Miliband, Purnell or Mandelson, and starts to distance themselves from Brown’s policies, as the economy picks up and as they benefit from a honeymoon period in the polls, that any new leader always does.

Could Labour win the next election.  Yes.  The public may do a 1992 and shock and keep an ‘unpopular’ Government in.  Better the devil you know.  ‘Oh well things are getting better let’s stick with Labour’.

Worst case, as Ken Clarke would say, a hung Parliament.  The best of no worlds.

Election loss.  Conservatives would tear themselves apart.  Many keeping their lips sealed now for Party Unity would feel empowered to state their case.  Something none of us ever wants to see ever again.

So let’s see more spark to our Opposition.  Let’s see our front bench hammering the Government ever harder.  Let’s see emotion, personalisation and humanisation used to bring issues closer to the public, so they understand what really is going on.

We cannot afford, as a Great Nation, to see Labour in again.

Why Cutting Income Tax, Cutting Red Tape and Deregulating Business is essential for the UK’s Future : by Scott Newton. 
 
I run a Small Business in Newcastle upon Tyne and from my own personal experiences of running a Company I have come to the following Conclusion:
 
Britain as a whole is not a Naturally Big Government Socialist Country; we never have and never will be. This nation naturally believes in Low Taxes, Deregulation and supporting out Small Business’s and Enterprises. I believe that is part of the “greatness” of Britain. We are a very hard working nation providing Wealth Creation Opportunities to all people regardless of their background or personal Circumstances. Conservatives don’t judge people by their bank account we judge them by their actions.

The entrepreneurial talent is still there in our nation, people with new ideas, new Products, new inventions which will ultimately create the jobs that this country now so desperately needs now and in the future. Since Labours win in 1997 the Business World has gradually become more and more regulated and higher taxed which as a result I regard as Sanctions by this Government against out SME’s and talent. Every Labour Government since the war has put up unemployment and created more Public Sector jobs to hide the unemployment figures, hence why we are bankrupt; everyday 2000 people lose their jobs, and 56 Business’s or more fold. This really cannot carry on.
 
Upon the Conservative Win of David Cameron ad Prime Minister, George Osbourne as Chancellor and Ken Clarke and Business Secretary, this nation and the new Leaders must  back its Business people and it’s new wave of talent to create the new opportunities for the new jobs and new ideas. First there must be a reduction in taxes, we cannot carry on with the way we are going having huge Socialist over manning and Government jobs when there is no one actually funding this none Productive Public Sector bureaucracy which many civil Servants regard as “Cushy”.
 
We must reduce the size of this Government State and bring more power back to the people.
Margaret Thatcher had the right ideas and she was excellent, I think David Cameron must have the Thatcherism fight for Business in him.
 
Deregulating Business’s is also what I regard as mandatory; so many people have the right idea and potential to start a Business but don’t actually know how, or where to start. Many of us could be Unemployed, have the idea, have the product or service that could be a perfect little new market earner, but they get told by a Government Bureaucrat at the Local Job Centre they are not eligible for funding or initial backing due to their Current circumstances which I think this is so very wrong. Hence another Labour mistake of “creed of ignorance, philosophy of failure, gospel of envy” as Winston Churchill regarded the Socialists.
Now Red Tape is a pain, I run a Business I know what it is like, luckily I have not folded as yet but this regulation and red tape is a night mare. It’s all regulation and a constant stream of tick box Paper work for Business’s and it puts no doubt many people off running their own Company. We must move away from this finger wagging, over taxing, over regulating way of Socialism and look to the future of supporting our economy and getting Britain Moving again with new Private Enterprise.
 
I think, and I hope David and George have it in them to return power back to the people and I am 100% sure they will not let us down.

Scott Newton

I don’t know about you but I am getting bored with the constant references to the Bullingdon Club.  Seems that Labour will refer to it in their election campaign in an attempt to discredit former Bullingdon members David Cameron, Boris Johnson and George Osborne.  Such tired, boring politics wont wash with the British People who care for issues and how their lives will be affected not old University high jinx!

So what is this infamous Bullingdon Club we hear of so much?   Well, it is a socially exclusive student dining club at Oxford University, without any fixed abode, well known for its members’ wealth and destructive drinking nights. Membership is by invitation only, and stupidly expensive for most, given the need to pay for the uniform, dinners and breakages.  The Club’s modus operandi has often been to book a private dining room under an false name, as most restaurateurs are wary of the Club’s reputation for causing considerable drunken damage during the course of the dinners. However, it depends on the character of the membership at the time — which necessarily varies from year to year — whether the famous ‘destruction’ is an intentional act of wanton vandalism or a side-effect of drinking prodigious quantities over a lengthy period of time.  Members are well known to trash a restaurant and then pay cash for damages, plus extra, when leaving.

Labour’s goal is to portray Cameron as elitist.  A toff with a silver spoon in his mouth.  Aloof.  Out of touch with the ordinary man & woman on the street.  The Bullingdon Club is one way to do this, hence the photo of Cameron and Boris in penguin suits, looking arrogant and elitist is like political dynamite to them.  Our future Prime Minister and current Mayor of London in sleek, expensive dinner jackets, (fyi Bullingdon members dress for their annual Club dinner in specially made traditional tailcoats in Oxford blue offset with ivory silk lapel revers, brass monogrammed buttons, a mustard waistcoat, and a sky blue bow tie. There is also a Club tie, which is sky blue striped with ivory. These are all provided by the Oxford branch of court tailors Ede and Ravenscroft. The full uniform costs around £3,500), positioned in strong ‘elitist’ poses, Boris sitting on the step looking straight into the eyes of the camera and David, looking wistfully into the distance.  After this group pose, reports regale the press of a wild night out on the town with damage to an expensive restaurant.  Boris was caught by the Police after smashing a window with a plant pot, (and spent a night in the cells).  No information comes to light of any high jinks that Cameron got up to, (he apparently went home early).  Channel 4 considered it such public interest entertainment that they created and funded a tv version of their antics viewable HERE  (If you want to see the original Bullingdon photos of Cameron, Boris and one with George Osborne, Google Search images of the ‘Bullingdon Club’).

David Cameron (Johnny Sweet), top, second left, and Boris (Christian Brassington) in More 4′s docudrama about their Oxford days

Frankly who gives a damn apart from those people who oppose those who have been priviledged to have generated and passed on wealth to their children.

My defence of the Bullingdon Club comes not because I have been a member, (far from it as I am the classic product of a working class family, moving on up through an average state school).  But neither am I jealous of those who have created or enjoyed wealth.  Consider this.  If you won the lottery today or built a business that was worth millions, would you seek to look after your children’s future, as well as building on your wealth?  In most cases yes you would.  So if you could provide your children the best in education, which is generally what all parents want, where are the best institutions?  Most would say Eton School and of course then Oxford and Cambridge University.  These choices are perceived by many as the ultimate goal for their children’s education.  Yet many feel the need to criticise those who can afford to go there, (whilst hypocritically they would do the same if they had that money).

This silly argument came up on BBC Question Time last week.  Yvette Cooper snapping at the heels of George Osborne.  Quite rightly he retorted, why should he be embarrassed by the success of his father in building a business, employing lots of people and yes, making money, (the whole point of business).  Success it appears breeds contempt.  It breeds jealously.  Yet many crave to be in this position yet condemn others if they cant have it.

Let’s tackle the high jinks that the Bullingdon Club got up to.  Those casting their stones at David, Boris and George should consider that most people have done things they regret in life.  University days, not just at Oxford or Cambridge, see many wild nights, with students, (yes future business leaders, politicians and …. parents), doing things that are unacceptable and they later regret.  That is part of growing up.  Learning through experiences and mistakes you make.   Go to any University town in freshers week and there will be shenanigans that turn your hair grey.  Critics say that this is all a question of a persons core ethics, their ‘character’, ‘their upbringing’, ‘their suitability to hold public office’, hence we should have the right, of a future leader to know everything.  Frankly….silly, childish student day pranks do not matter.  What matters is how a person intends to lead. What will they do for the poorest in society?  How will they create and spread wealth?  Can they create jobs?  How will they improve our schools, our roads, our hospitals, our national defences, our position in the world?  All this matters to people, not whether someone was a member of the Bullingdon Club.  Not whether they smoked canabis at school!  Not if they have got drunk and jumped into a river on freshers week!  If they commiteed a heinous crime, yes we have a right to know.  Did people decide they would not vote for the Mayor because when he was young he was merry and threw a plant pot throw a window?  Of course not.

But it is too much to hope for debates on issues by Labour.  They will use this old brush to try and sweep Cameron away from reaching Downing Street.  It will backfire on them and make them look the childish politicians they are.  And of course, their ‘greatest leader’ of recent times enjoyed himself at University as well. Tony Blair had his wild side……

‘Boys will be boys’….’students will be students’!

As John McCarthy says: ‘An excessive knowledge of Marxism is a sign of a misspent youth’.

A young Tony Blair in his underpants played by actor, Christian Brassington (NB he plays Boris above!)

I have to say I am becoming increasingly impressed by George Osborne.  He is showing some very strong signs of leadership of late and speaking common sense to the British People.

Full credit to George who today revealed a ‘White Paper’ that must be seen as the most detailed policy statement of an Opposition Treasury Spokesman in history!

There is a great deal of common sense in the document. For example, who can disagree with a policy that ensures that banks will be legally forced to tell it’s customers details of all charges raised on overdrafts, loans, mortgages and credit cards?

Who can disagree with a new Consumer Protection Agency whereby customers will be able to use a third party website to tell them if the products on offer are suitable?

Critically Osborne has finally outlined a clear relationship whereby the Bank of England will be given the remit of overseeing the banking sector, whilst the FSA will be scrapped.   This is a sound move in abolishing the tripartite system that Brown set up and gives power back to the Bank of England.  The Tripartite system badly failed our country and is a big reason why the banking sector folded like a pack of cards.  Osborne described the system, which shares responsibility between the Treasury, the FSA and the Bank, as “a policy failure of historic proportions”.  He added that: ”We must never repeat the mistakes of the last decade, in which we built an illusion of growth on the biggest mountain of debt ever seen in an advanced economy. A fragile return to stability in the banking system must not be used as an excuse to reflate the debt bubble with just a few tweaks here and there’.

Take a look at George here leading the charge, (courtesy of Sky News)

Keep up the great work George…….

I must confess that George Osborne is an impressive political operator.  Again, in the House of Commons, with little preparation, (as Chancellor Darling only gave him Statement Details 20 mins before he stood up to make it), Osborne tore through Darling’s empty rhetoric and tired old promises as darling sought to reform the Banking System that Brown had messed up years before.  Obviously George is a close friend with David Cameron, hence this suggestion makes even more sense to beef up George’s portfolio.  Maybe now is the time that DC should initiate a Shadow Cabinet reshuffle ready for the next election…..the summer recess is the perfect time….ready for the new Leaders to master their briefs before the election campaign starts in earnest……

George Osborne is a strong Shadow Chancellor but he himself admits his role and capabilities are far wider.  Therefore, it makes sense to move George into a more wide ranging remit rather than just purely economic affairs.  TBB would suggest to DC making George his Deputy Leader and place him at the helm of the Conservatives as Party Chairman, hence enjoying a pivotal role and free ranging remit in the election campaign.  Osborne would be a great media friendly Deputy Leader and Party Chairman.  It would be great to see him on our screens.

So, who for Chancellor?  TBB would suggest that William Hague moves into the role of Shadow Chancellor.  Again, a born communicator in a vital area for the Conservatives.  He would be welcomed by the City and is a huge credible operator.  Given the enormity of turning the economy round, William would be equal to the task and could take the tough decisions and yet command the respect of the British public.

So what for Eric Pickles?  Eric strikes TBB as great material for a Home Secretary.  No bullshit guy who would take no nonsense and get to grips with the rising crime levels across the UK, get the police focused on solving crime and not filling in paperwork or chasing speeding cars for fines and of course, sorting out the overcrowding in the prisons population.

So Chris Grayling has proved himself well in the Shadow Home Secretary role.  He has credibility.  Class.  Intelligence and commands respect and would make a fine Foreign secretary.

So recap:   David Cameron Leader; George Osborne Deputy Leader & Party Chairman; William Hague Shadow Chancellor; Chris Grayling Shadow Foreign Secretary; Eric Pickles Shadow Home Secretary

This could be a good start to a reshuffle ready to fight the next election….is this a winning team…views?

The Governor of the Bank of England was again in feisty mood last night at Mansion House.  He speaks his own mind and that is something we should all respect.  Remember pre G20 when Brown was spending like crazy to try and drag Britain out of recession and was on the verge of committing millions of more pounds at G20, King stepped in and effectively changed the shape of Brown’s G20, as Brown’s cheque book was ripped up very publicly.

The big debate at the moment is the level of spending and closely tied to that is the level of deficit.  Last night King argued that in 5 years the level of national Debt will be more than double its current level of around 40% of GDP.  King stated at mansion House: ‘It is also necessary to produce a clear plan to show how prospective deficits will be reduced in the next parliament.  King makes the point cleanly.  There is no room for borrowing more money and we have to start repaying our debt.

We live in frightening times with the Government set to borrow a record £175bn this year.  But the level of dishonesty coming from the Prime Minister is staggering.  The PM yesterday, under pressure from David Cameron, told MP’s that government spending on capital projects would rise every year until 2012 Olympics.  But the Treasury’s figures, Official Government stats, indicate it will fall from April 2010.  The budget, states that net investment will be £44bn in 2009-10 and will fall every year until 2013-14, when it will be £22bn.

Obviously caught out, Downing Street had to clarify this later.  They stated that total investment would be higher as the Prime Minister stated because of a Treasury Plan to raise £16bn from selling government buildings and other assets.  However, guess what, that does not add up as it would take another £39 billion to even maintain capital expenditure at its current levels until 2012.  Laughably, Down Street would not comment how the £16bn in asset sales could fill the gap.  Famous sources, (always anonymous), stated: ‘You’re talking about things that are four or five years off’!.

So, what we can clearly see is that the Prime Minister is being ‘economical with the truth’, a byword for a liar.  Whilst Gordon rants in the chamber ‘we are the party of the many, the Tories are the party of the few’, Tory cuts v Labour Investment’, this all sounds very hollow, as whoever wins the next election faces big choices and cuts in spending.

I think Alastair Darling gets this.  He speaks more calmly and wont promise increase but his boss is hell bent on pushing forward.  I wonder if Darling made the right choice staying in place.  He is doing a job that he knows he was going to get the chop from.  He is not following the policies he believes in, (hence why King has got more vocal and Darling & King are good friends and I am sure that King is a public mouthpiece for the Chancellor’s fears).  When you are in that position, heading for election defeat, Darling will no doubt be made the scapegoat by Brown and his advisers for that electoral defeat when it comes.  Is it really worth staying round Alastair.  Do you want to save some credibility?  You are a man looking down, depressed and your strings being pulled by the Puppet Master Brown!

DC & George O, place Brown on the spot.  ‘How will you repay the current deficit when you claim spending is increasing’?