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

The Party is for Turning!……The Lady wasn’t!

Whither the Right?  Things are changing.  The Right Wing, once the dominant force in the Conservative Party now finds itself shrinking in influence and with lessening access to the levers of power.  The Party no longer a ‘Thatcherite Party’ but a centre right/left of right- centre  Party.  Margaret would not be happy! 

What evidence of the decline of the Right?

-           David Davis.  The current standard bearer of the Right.  Feisty.  Challenging.  Innovative thinker.  But on the fringes looking in.  Perceived as a thorn for Cameron.

-           John Redwood.  Despite his vast experience, he is left on the outside of the Shadow Cabinet.  The man with actual Cabinet experience and the mettle which is needed in Government as witnessed in 1995 when he returned £100,000,000 of Wales’ block grant to the UK treasury unspent following efficiency savings and cost-cutting measures.  Unheard of under Labour!   Redwood has been the subject of a previous blog article: http://bit.ly/2B9oeG

-           Douglas Carswell & Dan Hannan.  The Right’s brightest thinkers as witnessed by ‘The Plan’ but again what to do with them in Office?  Carswell remains on the Backbenches for the time being.  Will they be inclusive figures in a Conservative Government or left to philosophise on the fringe and be ‘think tank’ revolutionaries?  Both are radical thinkers and surely will not be silenced.  Hannan especially espouses Right Wing ideology in the European Parliament.  Cameron has not shown his hand on this pair as yet.

-           Conservative Way Forward, the Thatcherite pressure group, standard bearers of the Right, opting safe with a new Chair in Don Porter, a loyalist, as a hack says:  ‘He’s been careful to steer clear of factions and is regarded as a wise old owl figure, as well as liked by politicians and volunteers alike. He has a rare ability to pour oil on troubled waters’.  CWF watering down its Right Wing credentials to have more influence with Cameron?

-           The new breed of candidates.  A new breed of candidates as witnessed by Chloe Smith.  Non ideologue politicians.  Smith, 27, was not even born when Thatcher came to power and would have no recollection of the 1980’s period of Conservative Government, hence no emotional attachment to Thatcherism.  A Cameroon through and through.  With Cameron opting for new candidates like former police chiefs, teachers, nurses, charity workers, the intake of new Right Wing MP’s will surely be severely curtailed.  Indeed arguably, since the new breed of candidates will be generally non Party activists, ideology and principle will diminish in the next parliament.  Conviction politics replaced by idealistic populist opportunism?  The life blood of new right-leaning candidates is stiffled, cutting off new recruits to the ideological cause.

Hence, the Right is in decline, in retreat…….a minority.

A lot of chatter has been taking place this week about what should happen with David Davis post the next election.  The Conservative Party is clearly moulded as a Cameron Party now.  Does Davis fit?  Should Cameron offer David a Senior job in the Cabinet, (if the Conservatives win)?  This opens up a huge discussion about how broad a church the Conservative Party is and how free people are to suggest new policy and disagree with existing policy.

There is no doubting Davis is a talented man.  A deep thinker.  And highly ambitious.  And there is nothing wrong with that.  But here comes the problem.  Suggesting new ideas and distancing oneself from existing policy gets portrayed by the media as disunity and positioned as a fight with the leader.  Hence headlines create that feeling of the Tory civil war, which is a wound that we don’t want to re-open.  But that is unfair on Davis.  This is a democracy.  We have a right to hear his views.  So therefore are we to blame the media?  But they need headlines, disunity stories sell newspapers….and their job is to sell papers.  The viscous circle continues spiralling and is unlikely to be changed. 

Davis knows what he is doing.  Perhaps positioning himself if Cameron should falter……we know that the next Conservative Government would face huge decisions, many mightily unpopular.  Hence Cameron’s popularity, (as anybody in that role would face), will take a hit early to mid the next Parliament.  If it doesn’t, it means big decisions have not been made on spending cuts.  This dip in popularity is a calculation for Davis….and one he may be gambling on?  Maybe we will witness a new battle for the heart of the Party in years to come with Davis taking the persona of Thatcher and Cameron as Heath, (many of the policies today would not be out of place under a Heath Administration).

Of course, the next election looks to be heading towards a thumping Conservative Majority.  ‘But events dear boy, events!’ can still change the political map.  What if the economy starts to turn round and confidence starts returning? What if Labour ditch Brown and Alan Johnson enjoys a honeymoon period that sees a snap election called early next year and a Hung Parliament is the result?  What if there is a big terrorist incident that calls for national unity?  What if the UK goes to war and again people stick by their current Government at times of war?  What if Cameron gets mowed down by a bus…this is a Cameron Party and another leader may not harness the same support.   What if?  What if?  But what if? became reality?…….. Davis is there.  Surely critical that the Conservatives did not reveal enough of their policy.  Were overly opportunistic.  Too populist but with no foundations or ideology to guide voters.  But conversely, a thumping majority for Cameron will marginalise Davis and the Right still further.  But Davis has to roll the dice……

The fighter on the outside….bruising for a battle or the last bastion of the Right fighting to make a mark?

So Davis aside, this brings to the fore, the question of what Cameron should do with two of his brightest stars on the Right of the Party.  Two other outspoken policy prescriptors.  Daniel Hannan and Douglas Carswell.  Bright, switched on visionaries.  But like Davis, what will Cameron do with them in Power?   Are they an embarrassment or a national treasure? 

Like many reading this blog, I find ‘The Plan’ an inspirational read.  It is revolutionary and yet common sense.  The premise is that the UK is a mess and that the next Conservative Government cannot tinker at the edges but must be engaging in wholesale reform.  The Plan maps out over 12 months, a wholesale shift in power ‘from the state to the citizen, from Whitehall to elected councilors, from Brussels to Westminster’. They desire to restore power to the individual, and, where this is impractical, to the lowest feasible level of government.

For those who have not read the book yet….shame on you, but as a general overview, some of the ideas propounded by Carswell & Hannan include:  Scrapping all MPs’ expenses except those relating to running an office and travel from the constituency; Selecting candidates through open primaries; Local and national referendums; “People’s Bills”, to be placed before Parliament if they attract a certain number of signatures; Placing the police under locally elected Sheriffs, who would also set local sentencing guidelines; Appointing heads of quangos, senior judges and ambassadors through open parliamentary hearings rather than prime ministerial patronage; Devolving to English counties and cities all the powers which were devolved to Edinburgh under the 1998 Scotland Act; Placing Social security, too, under local authorities; Making councils self-financing by scrapping VAT and replacing it with a Local Sales Tax; Allowing people to pay their contributions into personal healthcare accounts, with a mandatory insurance component; Letting parents opt out of their Local Education Authority, carrying to any school the financial entitlement that would have been spent on their child; Replacing EU membership with a Swiss-style bilateral free trade accord; Requiring all foreign treaties to be re-ratified annually by Parliament; Scrapping the Human Rights Act and guaranteeing parliamentary legislation against judicial activism; ‘Great Repeal Bill’ to annul unnecessary and burdensome laws; Repeal of the 1972 European Communities Act.

‘The Plan’, follows on from ‘Direct Democracy’, again by Hannan & Carswell.  ‘Direct Democracy’ identified voters’ dissatisfaction with politicians and reluctance to vote as a rational response to the way in which Britain is governed, with the decisions most clearly affecting people’s lives more often taken by quangos and bodies of supposed expert opinion than by elected politicians.

Two bodies of work, deeply influential amongst the Right.  But much too far reaching for a first term Conservative Government?

Now a number of ideas have been translated into Conservative Policy.  But the radicalness of many means it would take a courageous Cameron to implement the drift and tone of this plan.  Of course this will frustrate Hannan.  Hannan’s weakness is being an MEP.  He would be a far stronger voice at Westminster, with Carswell at his side.

Back to Cameron.  Should he offer a Ministerial role to Carswell?  Better to have him on the ‘inside pissing out than on the outside pissing in’ as the saying goes?  Is he too radical for Government?   Would the Civil Service neutralise Carswell’s visionary prowess?  Questions no doubt Cameron is asking himself.

And what of Hannan?  A cult figure in the Party following his rhetorical savage cutting down of Gordon Brown.  Obviouslya deep thinker and a lot further to the right and a fully embracer of the free market than David Cameron.  How will Cameron position Hannan after the next election? Will Hannan be as outspoken with the Conservatives in power as he is with them in Opposition?

If Cameron is serious about a Government of all the talents, then Hannan and Carswell should be at the centre of policy debate and at the heart of the Government.  Rare and exceptional talent and visionaries should not be lost to the political wilderness but that will require bold leadership from Cameron.

What next for the Right.  No doubting this is the weakest influence the Right have enjoyed in the Conservative Party for many years.  The Right is cornered.  Unfashionable under the flash sexy in-vogue fashion of David Cameron.  Future intakes of MP’s, bright fresh things and non party activist MP’s with no ideological baggage will surely dim the Right further……..

The Right will respond…on the back foot….but how is the question…..

Thatcher: A Legend in the History of the Party, but whither the ideology and principles….

Fascinating tribute from Charles Moore, who is of course Margaret Thatcher’s Official Biographer, to David Cameron, stating that he is the greatest Tory Leader of the Opposition since Benjamin Disraeli.  Take a look at the article here:  http://tiny.cc/nnZig

Moore states that the Conservatives have two advantages going for it.  Gordon Brown and David Cameron.  Many would fail to disagree with this.  Most interestingly, I think most in Labour would agree but it is what they will do about it that affects the result of the next election.

Moore cites his admiration for the way Cameron dealt with the expenses scandal making sure firstly the shadow cabinet repaid back any thing that did not look right and then Cameron turned his attention on to Conservative MP’s.  Whilst some MP’s grumbled, this was the right thing to do as it deflected attention off the Conservatives onto the Government and this strategy bore its fruits in Norwich North as Conservatives thumped home a whacking 7,300+ majority, in the first by-election since the expenses scandal.

Moore states: ‘Being Leader of the Opposition is notoriously the most difficult job in British politics. David Cameron has done it for nearly four years with a parliamentary party 30 per cent smaller than that which Margaret Thatcher led from 1975 to 1979. Judging strictly in terms of political management, I would say that he has so far been more successful than she. In fact, he must be the most skillful Tory opposition leader since Disraeli’.  That is some tribute.  But Cameron is not without issues.

The biggest issue Moore contests for Cameron is that policy needs to be defined more.  ’Voters do not recognise the Tory “signature” on anything much. In 1978/9, they would have known that the Tories promised something different on taxes, inflation, trade unions, and the Cold War. What do they know now? Nothing terrible, but also, nothing much. The vagueness of these impressions might not matter politically if in fact the Tories did know what they wanted to do. But where are they on terror, “human rights”, our constitutional decay, health service reform, local government, energy, our relations with America, the undeclared war in Afghanistan’. 

This asks an interesting question.  And it is true of any Opposition Party.  If the saying is ‘Government’s lose elections, not Opposition’s win them’, then why should Cameron reveal more?   Traditionally few Opposition Parties have spelled out their policies root & branch pre an election.  The more detail provided, provides more grounds for scrutiny and the spotlight must firmly stay on the Government and its incompetence.  Surely the goal is to provide tantalising alternative policies but not mapping them in the public arena to fine detail.

Cameron is a man that has changed much about the Conservative Party.  He deserves a great deal of credit.  He has gained public confidence on issues previously unheard of by Conservatives.  This evolves around his embracing compassionate Conservatism and the public trusting Conservatives with the health service and public services.  This is a huge win for the Conservative Party in gaining mass acceptance.

But does that make him the best Tory Opposition Leader since Disraeli?  That can only be judged after the next election.  If the Conservatives win with a big majority the Cameron deserves a pedestal in history for his work in Opposition.  If the Tories lose / hung Parliament, (and this can only happen if Labour remove Gordon Brown and there is a honeymoon period), then questions will be asked about why Conservatives did not reveal more policy.  All will be revealed within 10 months.

Lovely to see Lady Thatcher return from hospital after a 17 day stay.  Following breaking her arm and of course a minor operation to reset it, Lady T looked in good form and seemed bright and chipper today.  She took time out of her day to wave to the camera and show she was back to health.

As the Thatcher years start to blur in some people’s memories and of course many young voters were just born in her premiership and so never appreciated her tenure of Downing Street, it is important that we who remember continue to remind people of her successes and her legacy.

I was intrigued to read that the finest minds of the Oxford University Union debated in June, ‘The House proposes that Thatcher saved Britain’.  The motion was carried by 152 votes to 150.  Wow.  Our finest minds clearly need some further education and to hit the text books again.  Whatever your political persuasion, there is no doubting that Maggie T bestrode the 1980′s like a giant Colossus.  When the Conservatives came to power the country was in a complete and utter mess.  A dreadful state.  Many of the young wont ever appreciate the double digit inflation, mass unemployment, public sector in tatters, long NHS waiting lists, ill waiting in hospital corridors for operations, rubbish stacked up decaying in the street and of course 3 day weeks, unions cancerously strangling the country…..I could go on.  This does not even mention the UK’s pariah state in Foreign Affairs and a world living in fear of Communism.   The UK was dead and buried….unlike the dead who waited to be buried.

Yet the finest minds, our future leaders felt fit to just about pass the motion.  What’s the world coming to?  I knew that Degrees were being dumbed down but not that students were so out of touch.

Anyway, as I said.  Those who remember should ensure those that never witnessed the renaissance of the UK in the 1980′s under Mrs T, understand what she and the Conservatives achived for this nation.

In the meantime, take a look for yourself—-on Daily Telegraph TV at Lady T returning home.

Welcome back Lady T. 

We wish you well Lady T and a very speedy recovery.

Political colossus and Britain’s Greatest peace time Prime Minister Lady Thatcher is currently in hospital after a fall in which she broke her arm.  The hospital are keeping her in until Monday, just to keep an eye.

To her advisers that read this site send her our best regards today from TBB.

Margaret Thatcher towered over the end of the last century, here’s her top 5 achievements.

1)  Philosophy

Thatcherism became the major philosophy in much of the democratic world, ie lower income taxes, less government interference, standing up against Communist and corrupt regimes.  Promoting self reliance, hitting out at people who expected others to solve their problems.  As part of Thatcherism, Maggie sought to encourage entrepreneurs to take risks and grow their businesses. Top earners in 1979 paid 98 p in the pound. By 1988 Maggie had reduced this down to 40p.

2)  Collapse of Communism and elevating Britain’s place in the world.

Her conviction to never compromise with communism, helped bring down the Soviet Union and the collapse of the hated Berlin wall.  Britain stood tall again, as she helped throw the Argentines out of the Falklands after their invasion in 1982. She also helped persuade George Bush to be firm and stand up to Saddam Hussein and kick Iraq out of Kuwait.

3)  Created the home buyers culture

More than 1.5 million tenants brought council homes after 1980 right to buy law.  The Englishman’s home truly was his castle.

4) Privatisation

Sold of state run firms helped make them competitive and cut taxpayers huge costs. This also created shareholders with a stake in the country’s wealth.

5) Transformed the UK from the sick man of Europe

During her 11 years GDP, the main measure of national wealth, rose 23.3 per cent. Within the first 3 years of taking power inflation was at 8.6 per cent from highs of 18 per cent. Some would also say that keeping the pound and not committing to a Euro currency, has helped the British economy be more flexible and nimble in wealth creation. 
The. Largest achievement here was of course, standing up the Unions. 1979 the Unions were strong and had a vice like grip throttling the economy. She single handedly took them to task, saw new legislation passed to limit their excessive power and hence reduce the number of days lost by strikes.

What’s interesting is that Labour attacked every initiative. Then in power, they adopted the lot — only to then let them wither on the vine and die through neglect.

Sky News posted this 90 Second video on Maggie’s 11 years in power