Gordon Brownomics is over. What can the Tories offer?

By Iain Martin

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When John Smith unveiled his shadow budget six days into the 1992 election campaign, a pair of ambitious young Tories in their early twenties worked in the background as their party prepared to detonate a tax bombshell underneath Labour. News: Gordon Brown on the psychologist's couch Brassneck: The beginning of the end for Labour? Read more from Iain Martin Steve Hilton, now David Cameron’s marketing guru, was stationed in the Conservative’s party’s ad agency, Saatchi and Saatchi, while Cameron himself got up at 4.45am every day to prepare a press briefing for John Major. The campaign against Smith and Neil Kinnock was a slow burn but when it exploded it destroyed Labour’s hopes of victory. It also persuaded the man who became Shadow Chancellor after the election, Gordon Brown, to wean Labour off up-front tax rises. advertisement Brown designed a programme that would involve no increases in income tax rates. A mind-numbing mantra about “economic stability” would create the space for a steady expansion of public spending. It was, of course, all based on deceit. In reality, taxes would rise stealthily after a two-year period of sticking to Tory spending plans. When he arrived in office Brown was in luck. The books were as healthy as the Tories had claimed and, having undergone the painful structural reforms of the 1980s, Britain was well placed to benefit from a long global boom which was already under way. Brown took the resulting flood of money and poured it over his beloved public sector, mouthing modernising rhetoric and refusing to recognise that market mechanisms were required to deliver productivity gains. Tony Blair grasped that last point too late, but Brown carried on spending other people’s money until, as with all Labour governments, it ran out. Last week, the electoral cycle that started in 1992 came to an end and Brownomics died. For the first time in more than a decade the clamour is for lower income tax. Fearing annihilation in a by-election, the government has borrowed a further £2.7 billion to fund a tax cut. Millions of Britons, conscious of disposable incomes being squeezed and energy and food prices rocketing, make weekly calculations on how to tighten their belts and expect government to do likewise, but instead find Labour fat in power and philosophically incapable of behaving responsibly in a downturn. Until this point, the Conservative leadership had based its calculations on the belief that voters would not rumble the Brown consensus on spending. This made it more cautious than necessary. Yet, if Labour’s approach to spending and taxation has run its course, then so, logically, has the Opposition’s. This has been the argument of those who have urged a bolder Tory approach. With Cameron advocating radical education and welfare reforms — which the BBC no longer paints as a lurch to the right — there was scope for a different emphasis on spending and, by extension, taxation. If the Tories had more forcefully told a story about spendaholic government earlier, this would have coalesced with the clamour over 10p tax. The case for lower, flatter, fairer taxes, made by their commission on the subject, chaired by Lord Forsyth, would have been lit up. Tomorrow, David Cameron and his Shadow Chancellor will dip their toes in such waters, with speeches on securing value for money for taxpayers. It will be presented as perfectly in keeping with what has gone before, even though in reality this is a new and important stage. There will not be an efficiency review, like the one before the 2005 election, in which the Tories tried and failed to cost out savings from waste. While promising savings from the scrapping of ID cards and elsewhere, they will say that this is not enough. There will be talk of a radical approach to transparency, with government departments opening up online so that the public can assess how tax is spent; efficiencies from reform of police, prison and welfare; and a commitment to begin reducing the long-term demands on the state. Even the Government’s own estimates on the long-term public finances, published with the Budget, suggest that sticking with Labour policies for dealing with an ageing society will mean that in 50 years’ time the overall tax take as a share of GDP will have to go up to almost 45 per cent. A more realistic view suggests well over 50 per cent. This is unaffordable if we hope to be prosperous, economically competitive and socially cohesive. Western demographics are colliding with high energy prices which, rather than being a temporary oil shock, are the way of the future as developing economies consume greater quantities of a diminishing resource. The market is pointing out a reality to which we must adjust. Increased conflict is also likely to be a consequence of scarcity. At the end of the Brown experiment — now exposed, not as a new tune but a variation on an old Labour theme — this is the threatening context in which Cameron should consider his next move. Sclerotic, bureaucratic, high-tax countries will be too slow-footed to prosper in a century that will be just as dangerous as the last, while those that are low-tax, highly educated and socially mobile stand a chance. The Tories must show how they will create the latter.

 Have your say    

We are in a financial morass that is all too likely to suck us down to economic suffocation. Brown and Darling forge in deeper. The Tories are, hopefully, less imbecilic, but will have their work cut out just fighting out of this, without funding fancy new initiatives.

The - forgotten - Socratic imperative is that you must survive the present to enjoy a better future.


Posted by Noel Falconer MEcon on May 18, 2008 7:02 PM
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"mouthing modernising rhetoric and refusing to recognise that market mechanisms were required to deliver productivity gains.

Tony Blair grasped that last point too late, but Brown carried on spending other people’s money"

I'm not entirely sure the part about TB grasping it too late is true. I think it's rather more likely that Tony was simply too distracted by, and more interested in, those other areas in which he could play international statesman. Or, perhaps, he knew some time ago that Gordon was still too "old Labour" and would be found out, but given the pact they had formed, decided not to intervene too much - in any case, by the time the deception was discovered by the general public, he'd be retired and living it up with the occasional excursion to the middle East or to the offices of some investment bank where he'd hopefully have secured a part time role.

Whatever the real explanation, I suspect he's having a great time watching the Brown stuff hit the fan.
Posted by Adrian Beauchamp on May 18, 2008 6:42 PM
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Andy G

Either you are a pre-pubescent schoolboy with delusions that corporate socialism is good for this country.....

Or

You and your cohorts, Quackapple and Hazel Tree are actually paid by some state controlled quango to try to quell the seething rage and resentment that is bubbling under the surface of our faux democracy.

You can't win this battle

The truth is out.

The legacy of of NuLabour is a disaster that will impoverish all generations in the UK. Nobody will escape. Our pensioners are already crippled by inflation that by the 1983 measure is over 11%. Our young people leave university crippled by debt and are unable to buy their first home. We are fleeced of 50% of our income to pay for NuLabour's client state and to service public and private debt levels that will cripple our future. Our country has been hijacked by corporate and banking interests whose ony aim is a mass grab for the remaining wealth of the people. It isn't capitalism. It isn't democratic socialism. It is corporate socialism and that matey is FASCISM.

Thank the Lord I never had children.

Listening to people like you is sickening. Get back to your kindergarten or wherever it is you masquerade as another member of the human race.


Posted by Matt on May 18, 2008 5:37 PM

.........................

And great sea serpents shall rage up from the deeps and verily engulf us all!

What nonsense!

However, I guess many will be voting for the Tories who will surely defend us against those nasty capitalist bankers. Ha Ha!

If you think the Tories will be any better you need a severe check on your judgement.
Posted by Andy G on May 18, 2008 6:37 PM
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I agree that a highly educated and socially mobile people stand a chance that is why I have left the UK, Blair & Cameron no difference, just American puppets.
Posted by Robert Anderson on May 18, 2008 6:07 PM
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The problem for Camerons governement, 2010, is that it will take at least 3 years to unpick all the communist garbage Brown and his crownies have implemeted.
Posted by John on May 18, 2008 6:00 PM
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Surprised there are any thinking people who would still want to vote for them!
Please take Brown to a desert island -
His voters could then look afetr him in the style to wish he would like to be acustomed to - wonder how long it would last - he would be taxing your coconuts!
If the latest spending is anything to go by:-

The cost of Britain’s “hidden state” of unelected public bodies has soared to more than £100 billion a year, new research has revealed.
The research is in a report by the TaxPayers’ Alliance. It says these largely unseen and unaccountable bodies spend £101 billion a year, the equivalent of £1,662 for each person in Britain.
If he was in charge of a business in the real world he would be bankrupt within a year - Alan Sugar has more brains in his little finger than Brown.



Posted by Margaret on May 18, 2008 5:49 PM
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Andy G

Either you are a pre-pubescent schoolboy with delusions that corporate socialism is good for this country.....

Or

You and your cohorts, Quackapple and Hazel Tree are actually paid by some state controlled quango to try to quell the seething rage and resentment that is bubbling under the surface of our faux democracy.

You can't win this battle

The truth is out.

The legacy of of NuLabour is a disaster that will impoverish all generations in the UK. Nobody will escape. Our pensioners are already crippled by inflation that by the 1983 measure is over 11%. Our young people leave university crippled by debt and are unable to buy their first home. We are fleeced of 50% of our income to pay for NuLabour's client state and to service public and private debt levels that will cripple our future. Our country has been hijacked by corporate and banking interests whose ony aim is a mass grab for the remaining wealth of the people. It isn't capitalism. It isn't democratic socialism. It is corporate socialism and that matey is FASCISM.

Thank the Lord I never had children.

Listening to people like you is sickening. Get back to your kindergarten or wherever it is you masquerade as another member of the human race.


Posted by Matt on May 18, 2008 5:37 PM
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The world is topsy -turvey - we have tory bloggers on the Guardian Website and Labour Bloggers on the Telegraph website.

Please remember that after exiting the ERM - remaining in it was approved by Labour, the inflation rate for the last 4 years of the Tory government was the same as that of the Labour Government - the only difference was that the measure of Tory Inflation was the RPI and the measure of Labour Inflation is the CPI.
Posted by John Wood on May 18, 2008 5:10 PM
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An easier solution is to say goodbye to Cameron: He is not a Conservative, has no real work experience outside of the political world and is according to himself and Osborne a big fan of Blair. I for one would never trust him.

Posted by odin on May 18, 2008 5:03 PM
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We need a revolution to get the Tories back in.

After all, it has become rather boring. It's nigh on 15 years since we had mass unemployment, interest rates at 15%, negative equity and general economic collapse.

If you are bored and want the country to be run by a bunch of brainless waster - vote Tory.

Just do it!
Posted by Andy G on May 18, 2008 5:00 PM
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To Charles Crosby

Yep. We've outlived our usefulness.

The future is totalitarian dystopia. The Bilderberg agenda is it seems eventual 90% global depopulation.

Google the 'Georgia Guidestones' for a taste of what their real agenda is.

We are nothing more than cattle and the people running the world are sociopaths. The outcome is obvious. Cue economic collapse on a gigantic scale, a police state to try to enforce some kind of order. The maniac Bush and his NeoCon fascists (Supported by NuFascist)are on the brink of starting WW3 by attacking Iran. Oil will will hit $200 a barrel and probably higher. Sterling will collapse and we will be forced into the EU Soviet. Frankly, I'll be pleasantly surprised if Bush leaves the Whitehouse. I'm expecting some false flag terror event to occur in America just so he can declare martial law and cancel the 2008 elections. The Rockerfeller/Rothschild axis of evil and the CFR thought it would be a slam dunk and Hitlery Clinton would be the next dictator of the USA. Now that the Republican party is in chaos and Obama might actually win the election, I'm just wondering if Mr Obama is going to die in an unfortunate aircraft crash or from a mysterious and undiscovered bout of food poisoning.

We are facing complete economic breakdown, mass insolvency, mass homelessness (Debt agencies are being swamped by middle class families who have lost control of their finances already), civil unrest and disorder unseen in Britain for hundreds of years.

All part of their agenda.

The NEW WORLD ORDER = DESTROY all strong, independent nation states. Destroy the middle class, destroy freedom and liberty, Destroy everything in society that is wholesome or virtuous.

From Iceland to Zimbabwe

From the USA to the UK

We are indeed facing an apocalypse.

Never mind folks. Keep on reading your Murdoch newsrags and listening to The Archers. Indulge yourself in some Question Time or Any Questions. The Dimbleby's will no doubt convince you that everything is OK and we can trust the criminal scum we call politicians to keep on stealing our wealth, or freedom, our civil liberties and our childrens' futures. Happy days!

Just how much must we lose, how much will they steal from us, how much tyranny must we live under before people realize our whole political system and our so called 'democracy' is a total bloody charade?

Cameron is just another Bilderberg fascist stooge. Just another PR exercise, another sharp suit and bouiffant hairdo. Utterly repulsive.

As for Brown and Bliar, (the smirking, lying satanic chimp) only the gallows are good enough. I was reading the Cheri Bliar article yesterday. The journalist writing the piece was describing how their Connaught Square house has bullet proof glass and engineers installing the most advanced security measures to keep out potential intruders. I hope thay have done their job properly because when the full consequences of what Bliar has done to our country become realized, there will be thousands of people bashing their front door down armed with every kind of sharp object imaginable.

Bliar's conversion to Catholicism is the act of a man who knows full well what he has done for the future of the British people. His first confession must have been long and painful to listen to. It wont save him. The British people will punish him for his treason.
Posted by Matt on May 18, 2008 4:51 PM
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Do any of you actually remember who was special adviser to Lamont during the worst ever financial crisis this country has ever experienced? yes folks it was Mr Cameron!! Please then tell me how he can ever have any credibility when it comes to the economy? oh and whilst we are talking of credibility.

Can someone please tell me how he can ever have any credibility when it comes to law and order, especially loutish and yobish behaviour, when he was a member of the Bullingdon club that used to smash up restaurants and bars in Oxford. And how can he ever have any credibility when it comes to drugs? when he will not admit taking class A drugs whilst a member of this club. And how can he have any credibility when it comes to the nations drinking problems? when as a member of this club he used to get smashed off his face? The man is a walking hypocrite!!

And yes I know it is in the past. But come on, you Tories would never forgive an ordinary kid from a council estate for such behaviour, so why forgive him. I know we want this rabble out of government, but 'cameron' and co are not the answer I am afraid and I think you know it too.

One more thing.Why did the gowns that he and Dozy Doris and the George the boy Osborne go missing a couple of years ago? maybe because the class A drugs that they snorted would still have been on them.

I have no love for Brown either, believe me. But I would rather have him as PM any day than the Eton club running the country.
Posted by jack on May 18, 2008 4:44 PM
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I just want to start a business, employing the neccesary, ethically, my way without interference or fear of being burdoned with taxes and red tape. Tax less so I can buy goods and services. Others may buy mine? I want employment to be laid on and the Government to lay off!
Posted by Dave on May 18, 2008 4:07 PM
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Most acute is our need to cut waste.\ Not only the domestic type by recycling and other such sensible means but the ever wasteful QUANGO's mentioned by other writers. It seems to me there is no common sense in government these days or even in the 2 main opposition parties who try to tell us all will be better if they are elected. Well folks all 3 major parties will keep us in the EU by fair means or foul. Denying us a vote on the Lisbon Treaty/Constitution is not the right way to satisfy us voters. I say to you all that a vote for the 3 main parties is not the way forward. Why not vote for parties who advocate withdrawal from the EU? That is of course if we ever get the chance. After all Westminster is just a shell now and the EU parliament is a mere sham. So campaign now for a referendum. Write to HM the Queen and ask her not to give royal assent. E-mail a Lord or Lady to give your view in the hope that they will vote for a referendum before this, the most powerful treaty yet, is ratified without our consent.
Posted by John Wilkinson on May 18, 2008 3:58 PM
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Gordon Brown as Mr Micawber: "Welcome poverty!..Welcome misery, welcome houselessness, welcome hunger, rags, tempest, and beggary! Mutual confidence will sustain us to the end!"

Uncomfortably relevant parallel with the bubble in which Gordon rode as Chancellor?

How about the thoughts of Mr Pickwick: ""Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery."

It would seem that Dickens remains relevant today. One cannot but imagine how very disappointed, given his frequent literary examination of social injustice, Charles Dickens would be with the Labour Party.

The Tories need offer nothing in the way of extravagant promises - only to do their best to put things right. Brown has no concept of cuts - but cuts there must be and and cuts there will be. The Tories will have to make them - because Labour still in power and not making them will ruin us all.
Posted by simon coulter on May 18, 2008 3:50 PM
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Browneconomics is grabbing as much as possible from responsible, productive folks (enslaving their g.g.grandchildren in debt) and who are unlikely to VOTE 'Labour'; and giving it as bribes to lazy, feckless, selfish, unthinking folks, state employees and ultra early retirees, who are.

Our system of democracy, operating now in an amoral culture with a heavily biased Labour-supporting media and oceans of propaganda, is thus fatally flawed.
Posted by Ollamh Fodhla on May 18, 2008 3:43 PM
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I always thought that we had a monarchy. Am I incorrect in this?!?
Would it not be possible for the Queen to force a General Election, after an opinion poll in the UK?
I am fed up with politicians. I HATE politicians by definition. The majority have never had jobs in the private sector. So they have no experience of the real world. I would prefer to give the jobs to people who don't WANT to be politicians - people who would do public service for 5 years, in the sector thy know best, and then return to their jobs. Then perhaps we wold have some real policies which would work and be cost effective.
What do we have to lose???
From an irate student, who despises this Government! Yours, John
Posted by John ODriscoll on May 18, 2008 3:13 PM
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If you watched Marr this morning there was a very interesting comment made when discussing the papers,specifically what the polls showed. For once the polls are ahead of the media and the people are making their own voice heard with regard to taxes and smaller government!! Then at the end of the programme all 3 remaining on THE SOFA said the same thing LESS BREAUCRACY in answer to the question about how the police could deliver better results.
Posted by m.lovett on May 18, 2008 3:08 PM
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Tories need to go for massive immigration reform, welfare reform and tax reform. They need to study the US system too.

By the by, I don't have any criminal record anywhere in the world. However, as the time goes by, I may need massive medical help. To apply for asylum and then free lunch there after, do I need to cook up some criminal records? I am very glad to know that British taxpayers will pay for my free lunch all along!
Regards,
Posted by Krishna R. Kumar on May 18, 2008 3:06 PM
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To Alan Robinson on May 18, 2008 12:34 PM

"I wonder......just who do Conservatives care most for? People in Rostock, or those in Appledore and Troon?"

That's easy to answer Mr Robinson - themselves, via the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, Warburgs, Goldman Sachs et al. The ones who will be looking after them when they have finished selling out the British people.



Posted by Charles Crosby on May 18, 2008 2:59 PM
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Phil Cowburn (2:01PM).

A very good idea in principle. However, who would employ the army of former civil servants made redundant as their cushy jobs went down the tubes? Would they in fact be employable?

Perhaps a new regiment could be raised for the army? The Royal Shirt-Tail Chair Polishing Fusiliers - several battalions strong - could be deployed as a vanguard to any and all trouble spots where they could struggle with poor or non-existent equipment to fight insurgents. At home they could live in houses which make some of the 'slums' demolished in the 1950s and 1960s look like luxury mansions.

They could be commanded by unemployed former MPs who have lost their perks and pensions.

Yes, perhaps the punishment really should fit the crime.
Posted by Old Sarum on May 18, 2008 2:51 PM
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Sue on May 18, 2008 8:23 AM – “we cannot keep increasing the number of politicians and QUANGOs when we are governed by an unelected elite in Brussels.”

Oh so true, Britain’s unelected public bodies, QUANGOs has increased to 1.162 and the cost of such bodies has soared to more than £100 billion a year. According to the latest survey by The TaxPayers Alliance,

“The Cabinet Office keeps no complete, public, central record of the Government’s public bodies.
 Taxpayers supported 1,162 public bodies in 2006-07, agencies and non-ministerial departments, at a cost of nearly £64 billion.
 Over 700,000 people in the UK work within this layer of quasi-government.
 The cost of these public bodies in particular has soared from some £19 billion in 1996-1997 to £31 billion in 2006-07, a growth in real terms of 50%.
 The organization of British government is a mess, impossible to understand and inefficient. Political and financial lines of responsibility are so divorced that it is often difficult to ascertain where responsibility lies, or to whom anyone is accountable.
 Government itself does not know the true and size and cost of government. The few official documents concerned with Britain’s public bodies are out of date and often inaccurate.
 Government now employs just under 6 million people and has an annual expenditure of almost £600 billion. Twenty senior ministers and around 500,000 civil servants oversee 1162 public bodies, 365 NHS Trusts, 469 Local Authorities, 60 police forces (140,500 officers) and countless other local and regional spending bodies. No-one could effectively manage such an organization, and as such British government suffers from terrible inefficiencies, waste, and ultimately depreciation in the quality of services provided.
 Healthcare: The standard of care provided by the NHS is now ranked 16 in a comparison of 19 peer countries. In 2004 alone, 17,157 deaths amenable to healthcare occurred in the NHS, which would have been avoided if Britain matched the performance of European peers.11 Levels of hospital-acquired infections are among the highest in Europe and waiting times continue to force people abroad for treatment.
 Welfare: The complex system of tax credits, allowances and income support has created a welfare trap, while at the same time necessitating a large and costly bureaucracy to administer it.
 Education: Four out of ten pupils in state education now leave school without the minimum standards in English and Mathematics that the QCA deems necessary for ‘Life, Learning and Work’. After 11 years of schooling, at a total cost of £75,000, the state system fails to provide individuals with the means necessary to succeed, trapping them in poverty and dependency. Year on year, British educational standards continue to fall s in comparison to other advanced wealthy countries.”


Posted by Kenneth Armitage on May 18, 2008 2:49 PM
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"Gordon Brownomics is over. What can the Tories offer?"

More of the same.

We know that 'Hug a hoodie' 'Call me Dave' Cameron is just a puppet, as is Brown, as was Blair before him.

He is as meaningless as the party he represents or the third part of the even more meaningless three party British political system. A front for the international bankers.

He, like his predecessors, will just do as he is told.

Awaken from your slavery Britain, the cattle trucks are waiting in the sidings - the tidying up exercise to end all tidying up exercises!


Posted by Charles Crosby on May 18, 2008 2:46 PM
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Labour set their own traps Cameron is merely kicking a man while he's down.

What does Cameron have to offer? absolutely NOTHING.


Posted by Dave D on May 18, 2008 2:42 PM
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May I humbly remind those here advocating the setting up of a health and pension insurance fund to pay for healthcare and pensions that I have been paying this for the whole of my working life in the form of National Insurance Contributions. All that needs to be done is for these contributions be used for this purpose and not lumped in with the Government's general proceeds of theft from us.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the National Insurance Scheme was in the black. Then we joined the EU rather than the EEC and the money disappeared in a generally easterly direction.
Posted by David MH on May 18, 2008 2:39 PM
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R Mason on May 18, 2008 1:17 PM
I agree with much of your suggestions, though I would go further: the only benefit should be unemployment benefit, and it should be time-limited; everything else (children, dependents, disability etc) should be given by tax allowances. This would ensure most people would work and those with families would pay no income tax, especially if there was only one earner. Thus allowing one parent to care for the children.
Yet more tax allowances for subscribing to an NHS-style health scheme, and a properly protected (from the Treasury) pension/elderly care plan.
Education vouchers by-passing the local authority should mean all its services could be met from Council Tax revenues only, much improving accountability at elections (No more fudges about who is paying for what, and who is responsible for rotten service).
Posted by Phil Cowburn on May 18, 2008 2:01 PM
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Alan Robinson on May 18, 2008 12:19 PM
If you had read my post (and my name) more closely you would have noticed I was arguing for more expenditure on personal public services, just denying that the British will put up with the levels of taxation needed to pay for it under the current model. What they will put up with in Denmark currently is not really the point.

The benefit of taking provision away from the Treasury is that it removes the fiscal ceiling on expansion of the sector (think: telecoms, airlines, freight, etc under Thatcher), and would encourage cost-efficiency, innovation and customer responsiveness, with which a five yearly vote on chucking out one bunch of politicians in favour of another does not remotely compare.

A social democracy in which very high proportions of GDP is funelled through the state is too close to totalitarian socialism, and will go the same way. If we want a civilised society, we have to find ways of channelling excellence, enterprise, and earning into delivering it. Brown's only mantra is 'to each according to need, from each according to means', and is a busted Fabian flush.
Posted by Phil Cowburn on May 18, 2008 1:25 PM
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GRAHAM KING at 805am
You mention that Healthcare should only be given to British Passport holders AND at least two years NIC (payments.
I am surprised at this statement as I thought that you could not get healthcare free unless you belonged. That freebies were eliminated?
I worked in the UK a number of years and paid everything as required. When I emigrated I continued to pay for the Pension part of the NIC system. To have a small pension of course. But, I WAS ADVISED SOME YEARS AGO THAT HEALTHCARE WOULD NOT BE AVAILABLE, unless I returned as resident to UK. Even in an emergency! Also, I have retained British citizenship. So it really p---es me off to find that many immigrants DO have this availability!
(However, seeing the state of NHS hospitals and seeing my sister die and an elderly cousin due to those awful hospital acquired bugs, I am not certain i would wish to be in one.)
Also, due to labour as we all know, the UK is not the place to retire to unless I win the lottery! And we can get shot of this rotten lot.
I like Prawn on the Barbie's comment:
UP YOURS, DELORS!
RE the SSof EU
Posted by claudia apicella (expat who despises Brown and EU on May 18, 2008 1:24 PM
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The Conservatives are going to inherit an appalling situation for the third time: Atlee and Callaghan were the first two and left the Conservatives mountains to climb, which they failed to do. They will this time get too many civil servants on too much money and too fat pensions. A moribund housing market, £1.5trn of personal debt, repossessions, demoralised city, low tax income, massive government debt, high inflation,fantastically complex tax system, a huge unempolyed and unemployable underclass, and more, much, much more.

But there is much they can do by following the principles of simplification, delegation and clarification. First, simplification of the tax and benefit system. A few suggestions. Increase the personal tax allowance to £10k and take the poor out of tax altogether. Reduce benefits to just two, unemployment and child allownace. Make unemplyment benefit limited to five years in total and two years at a stretch. No child benefit for the under 18s, rising to 21 if necessary the benefit going to the grandparent or guardian and for the first child only, any subsequent children to be paid for through the tax system. No benefits at all to the under 18s or until they have worked for 2 years whichever is the greater. Delegate housing benefit to local authorities with no central government subsidy giving local authorities the whole of VAT to be allocated by a Local Authority Management Board, chaired by a minister. VAT to be reduced to 10% but with no exemptions at all. Make all schools independent and paid for by vouchers with local authorities free to run them too but in a free market. Re-introduce the providor/purchaser split with the GP as the gatekeeper as before. Regarding clarification, do away with political correctness in everything. The sole criteria for doing anything should be "does it work, does it acheive your clearly defined aims and objectives?" And finally make the British law superior to all other law in the UK. I could go on all day but that will do for now.
Posted by R Mason on May 18, 2008 1:17 PM
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Doing nothing to cleanse the status quo after accepting leadership of the most corrupt, self seeking government in Britain's political history - indeed having added a multiplicity of stealth taxes not mentioned in Labour's deceitful manifesto to the sleaze - Brown is the last person to preach morality to a religious gathering.
Posted by Tooph Ingers on May 18, 2008 12:47 PM
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Mark Kenneth Owen:

I don't suppose you hold that German intentions were obscure? That, for the sake of peace (not rousing nazi sympathies again), softies like Britain had to surrender jobs to the Germans and their unification programme? For I can tell you gratis, that in my time in European shipbuilding, the Germans have received favour after favour, and dispensation after dispensation. Question: What happened to the "level playing field" the Conservatives always crowed about? Answer: it was ploughed up in the name of peace.

You want us to vote Tory? Put my points fairly to people in Sunderland, Tyneside, and on the Clyde, and ask if they agree their jobs should be transferred to Warnemunde so the Germans could have prosperity at our cost.

I wonder......just who do Conservatives care most for? People in Rostock, or those in Appledore and Troon?
Posted by Alan Robinson on May 18, 2008 12:34 PM
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Just how many people that read this paper (or blog) can continue to pick up "wages" and vast expenses for full time work, yet, if the Treaty of Lisbon is ratified-without the people's consent-they will only do about 10-15% of the work of Government.

About 20 people sat in the Commons for the debates on the Lisbon Treaty which shows without doubt, none of them are interested in who Governs this Country. Most certainly if they do not care one jot, then why should I care one jot whether I pay my taxes that keep them? Why should I vote for any Party that wants to remain in this Union that wants "POWER" over everything?

No, the people are not just "going to accept" the handing over of all the contents that were in the Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe and are now in the Treaty of Lisbon. They have a Constitution and a Bill of Rights of their own to which ALL should look to and obey.

If we remove all the items in the Lisbon Treaty that were in the rejected Constitutional Treaty, do you know exactly what would be left to ratify in the Lisbon Treaty?

Certainly not the Anthem and Flag because both were thrown out of the Lisbon Treaty so no singing the Anthem and hoisting and EU flag because it does not have one. Come on, name what is left in the Lisbon Treaty if we remove all that was in the rejected Constitutional Treaty.
Posted by Anne Palmer on May 18, 2008 12:28 PM
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'Brown-nomics' is a 'Komic Cut' ain't it? Knee-jerk policies worked out on the trot on the back of motion papers and probably the Menu Card from the House of Commons Cafetria.
Posted by B Clark on May 18, 2008 12:22 PM
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Phil Brown 10:36

"No earner will remain living in this country if paying out more than they are allowed to keep in order to support such a public service regime."

Mr Brown. Let me advise you of the state of affairs in Denmark, voted the best place to do business recently. For example:

All that people earn over about GBP 31,000 is taxed over 60% at source.

The Danes are about the most taxed people in the world.

Danish welfare, while not the world's best and has its faults, is at least comparable to that in Britain.

Once you get some money in your bank account, you pay 25% VAT on everything you buy, almost without exception.

The Danes, while asking questions, and putting right decades of social democrat misuse, are however NOT leaving their country in droves.

The difference between us and Denmark is that we are still struggling to get over the industrial age, thanks to Thatcherism. We should have made gradual changes, not revolutionize the country, because revolution encourages counter-revolution.

I suggest what the UK needs, compared to our neighbours across the North Sea, is 20 years of social democrat rule to raise standards for the weakest (NOT the LAZIEST) after which we can talk again.

Thanks for reading this.
Posted by Alan Robinson on May 18, 2008 12:19 PM
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You want something for nothing? Forget it. Everything has its price.

What sort of nation do you want to live in? The billionaire exiles from all across the world enjoying their wealth in London and the Home Counties and buying our "football clubs", while many native Britons live in poverty? Shall we be pressed into domestic service like Victorian paupers?

If you want a split nation, go ahead, vote Conservative, without aking what their policies are. If you want to break up the Union, go ahead, vote Conservative, beacuse the majority of Scots don't want the Tories at any price. If you want a split nation, go ahead, ridicule New Labour, and encourage socialists to pull to the left.

You want us to vote Conservative? Then lets hear what the Conservative's policies are so we can consider them as an alternative to New Labour, but please, don't offer us any more Thatcherism, I for one might work to revive the Jacobin movement.
Posted by Alan Robinson on May 18, 2008 12:04 PM
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I noticed years ago that all my children, on taking
up a new sport, wanted to buy things. I see new
business dreamers starting up and wanting to buy
things, the latest kit. Skill is, as I pointed out to my
brood, about time and practice... the type of
equipment is not important. I see Brown running
the country just wants tp spend money, the skill of
getting results is not anywhere in his mindset.
Posted by fiona plymouth on May 18, 2008 11:52 AM
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There is bucket loads of cash that can be saved. For
a start, declare a moratorium on EU payments for 5
years - that will save billions. What are they going
to do about it - arrest all of us for non-payment? I
think not. Just whine and moan - and we can say
"Up yours, Delors"!



Posted by Prawn On The Barbie on May 18, 2008 11:48 AM
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Read Michael Portillo's excellent column in the Sunday Times - he suggests that Dave et al sit back and watch Labour implode. I wholeheartedly agree. The Tories are not responisble for running the country - Labour is. Nearer to the time of the election is when we should see Tory policies. My only worry is George Osborne - he does not seem to have the gravitas that is needed in a Chancellor of the Exchequer and he always comes over as some sort of smart Alec undergraduate. There is a sea change taking place - I just hope that the next government will give us our liberty back, especially freedom of speech and thought.
Posted by Ian Burgess on May 18, 2008 10:54 AM
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When Major won the 1992 election, I though that he had pulled the rabbit out of the hat. One of my colleagues, however, who posseses a far more detailed understanding of the public finances than I do was prescient in suggesting that it may have been better had Kinnock won. He could see economic troubles ahead and thought that it would be better for Labour to get the blame for them and only last a term.

I think that a team with Kinnock as PM and John Smith as Chancellor would have grated on Middle England and many others. William Keegan, a Left leaning financial journalist wrote a book called the 'the Prudence of Mr Brown' and this provides some eye-opening information on our great economics guru.

The fact is that Neil Kinnock, John Smith and Gordon Brown all supported the UK's entry into the ERM far more strongly than most of the Tory front bench. Lady Thatcher had vetoed the proposal several times and only reluctantly gave in when Major persuaded her during his brief tenure as Chancellor that it would help us to drive down inflation. Another point that is overlooked, is that although Lawson may have allowed money supply to loosen too much towards the end of the Thatcher era, inflation on a worldwide basis was higher then that it has been under New Labour and some of the inflationary pressures were therefore outside of the Tory Government's control. Major had only ever wanted to enter the ERM in the belief that being linked to the strong DM would help to drive down UK inflation and it was extraordinary unlucky that we may have joined at a rate that was too high and this situation was worsened by the effects of German re-unification in which Chancellor Kohl had unwisely converted the OM to the DM on a one to one basis.

'The Prudence of Mr Brown' also gave an interesting detail that Brown spent years conducting research into some obscure Scots political figure who was one of his heroes. This gentleman, apparently, believed in massive state ownership, very high taxes on the wealthy and middle classes and similar polices. Keegan also wrote that when Brown took over at the Treasury he was told that the economy was in remarkably good shape and the finances were excellent and he sarcastically retorted 'what do you expect me to do, write a note to my predecessor thanking him'?

'No taxation without representation' was one of the slogans used leading up to American War of Independence. I think that Lord North had managed to upset the Americans by imposing 'stealth' taxes such as stamp duties on newspapers and imported tea, if I remember rightly. Elementary economics books often list transparency, simplicity, efficiency in collection and fairness as being among the key attributes of a good tax. Stealth taxes seem undemocratic to me. No one likes being ripped off in a restaurant by huge service charges or signing a contract and finding lots of hidden costs in the small print.

We deserve to know from the outset how much a Government proposes to take of our hard earned money. The suggestion that huge savings can't be made in the public sector is absurd. The Guardian is full of jobs for unnecessary positions for irritating and often sinister jobsworths who are making our lives a misery. When BT and BA were privatised in the 1980s and lots of staff were laid off their services actually improved. There is obviously some sort of 'law of diminishing returns' in operation in which each additional unit of money spent brings incrementally fewer benefits. Does anybody suggest that doubling expenditure on the NHS has doubled output?

Iain Martin tells us that low-tax, highly educated, non-bureaucratic and socially mobile economies are the ones best placed for the future. Unfortunately, we have the opposite to all four due to New Labour's failed policies. Cameron needs to face up to high spending and it was premature of him to promise to match this profligate Government's high public spending.








Posted by Mark Kenneth Owen on May 18, 2008 10:40 AM
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It has been evident for more than a decade that population demographics, technological innovation and ever increasing personal expectations will mean that personal public services cannot be funded from taxation.
No earner will remain living in this country if paying out more than they are allowed to keep in order to support such a public service regime.
The solution is clear: more pre-tax income needs to be spent providing for these services. Subscription to NHS-type schemes should be compulsory and tax allowable; ditto national pension/elderly care schemes; perhaps even education. Treasury fiscal limits on these services currently place a cash ceiling on what otherwise would be an expanding sector which would encourage innovation if it were based on diversity of supplier and effective competition.
A new Conservative government should start by allowing PCT's to charge flat rate subscriptions to their local populations (tax allowable) and then allow competition for customers both between PCT's and from similarly constituted non-statutory agencies. Eventually wean them off from support by the Teasury, to deliver after a decade a much lower tax economy with a thriving, efficient and dynamic personal services sector.
Posted by Phil Cowburn on May 18, 2008 10:36 AM
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mike williams in Bangkok on May 18, 2008 7:56 AM speaks of the [almost] inevitable recession (if not depression) that the UK has in store. It does seem inevitable that the UK under Brown has no chance of ameliorating the financial tsunami that is poised to strike.

The Money Masters video (link) does have an intriguing suggestion - that of removing the international bankers from the [debt-as-money] system which fuels the inflation/deflation cycle. It asserts that this can be achieved within a matter of a few years - for the USA.

It's a 3.5-hour video, but very interesting indeed.

Does anyone in politics have the guts to do it? Might Cameron?

Posted by Arlene on May 18, 2008 10:03 AM
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Just stop paying taxes to these thieving rodents.

Posted by Frank on May 18, 2008 10:01 AM
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Borrowing to fund a tax cut...Do you realize how stupid this sounds?

Kill off the parasites.

Posted by Roger on May 18, 2008 9:59 AM
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To Michael Petek on May 18, 2008 7:28 AM

Work for £2 an hour or lose your benefit.

And what is so wrong with that ?
And as for mass unemployment, would you rather have no unemployment ?

That’s easy, just giver the unemployed shovels then split into two. One lot digs holes, the other lot fills them in.

Either real work or no work. There is no middle fudge, is there ?


Posted by D. Subversiv on May 18, 2008 9:55 AM
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Michael Petek 7.28am
Take it easy Michael, Soylent Green isn't people yet you know!
Posted by John Turner on May 18, 2008 9:43 AM
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Good grief, you are still talking. Jaw, jaw…

When are you going to get off your bottoms and actually do something ?

We cant leave it to the students as with previous revolutions, this time it has to be the middle aged and middle class. You and me Squire, that is.

The prisons are already full and the Army is away and occupied, there is not much the government can do apart from resign and join us..

As Dr Timothy Leary said years ago “Tune in, Turn on, Take Over.”

Posted by D. Subversiv on May 18, 2008 9:42 AM
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ZaNuLabour and its apologists still don't get it. The abolition of the ten pence rate was an overt tax rise. It still exists - the government is still trousering the money - and now McGabe has put the country £2.75 billion further into debt in a desperate attempt to bribe the electorate into believing it doesn't.

Posted by O Zangado on May 18, 2008 9:40 AM
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If our economic expansion was on a par with China, oil would not seem expensive, because our money would be worth more, just as China's money is now worth more. The only way to encourage economic expansion is to lower taxes.

Improving education or services without cutting taxes will not help, because the most ambitious and entrepreneurial graduates will flee Britain's overtaxed economy for better opportunities elsewhere - such as China.
Posted by Eric Worrall on May 18, 2008 9:17 AM
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Please Mr Cameron: do your NuCons believe that FAMILIES should provide their own House & Welfare (maybe with the help of neighbours, churches and charities) or the STATE?

The main, paid (by other's heavily taxed income) 'employment' up here seems to be people looking after their own relatives! --so hardly anyone, any longer, makes, serves, grows, or catches anything, and just live for generations off the back of others!

Do you find this tolerable?
Are you a socialist?
Posted by Ollamh Fodhla, Northumberland on May 18, 2008 8:54 AM
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Gordon Brown is like a stick of rock with "tax & spend" written right through him from top to bottom. Sticking with the seaside theme, it is vital now that the British people are made aware of the economic facts of life, we don't need any real leader vending candy-floss policies. Just as in the early 80s the message that "One man's pay rise is another man's ticket to the dole office" became cold reality, likewise people earning a living and keeping their own hard-earned cash, rather than having it grasped from them by the Whitehall Value-Trashing mechanism to be hurled around with abandon needs to come to a juddering halt. The expensive and complicated machinery from the "Brown Project" needs to be dispatched to the breaker's yard- no economy can afford it for long. Britain today reminds me in some ways of another famous Labour initiative, "The Ground Nut Scheme"- one of the greatest failures of British colonial development- plenty of rusty machinery there in Africa after that bit the dust.
Posted by Nick R on May 18, 2008 8:54 AM
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Yup, the opening paragraphs neatly sum the situation up.
Two scary points mentioned.
Tax, as a percentage of GDP, is already at 44.5% so no room to manoeuvre there.
The Tories seem still to have little principle, just focus groups.
If they had admitted to the elephant in the room, too high taxes very badly spent, they would have at least seemed to be conservative. But they didn't.
I watch Crewe now seeing two unprincipled dogmas fighting over a bone. The least loved wins.
Where's a party with a real leader, real principles which wishes to serve not be served.

Posted by Minnie Ovens on May 18, 2008 8:49 AM
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Britain's future rests with Labour for the next two years. The only role for Cameron's Conservatives is to win at Crewe.

If, following such a defeat, Brown can be ousted before the EU Amendment Bill gets its third reading, or if enough Labour backbenchers and Nick Clegg realise its passage without the promised referendum will be their own redundancy notice, then there is hope for the country.

If Brown can force the Lisbon Treaty through then only an Irish No can save the nation.

Is there is a replacement for Brown with the courage to start re-building the British economy by stemming all the outflows to the EU?

That is the main issue for the next two years, not what the Tories might promise!
Posted by Martin Cole on May 18, 2008 8:42 AM
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There are so many ways in which our tax bills could be cut without even"tightening our belts"Anne Palmer has listed one huge saving;we cannot keep increasing the number of politicians and quangoes when we are governed by an unelected elite in Brussles.Either we stay in the E.U.and allow the commissioners to rule,which eliminates the need for any administrators here or we leave Europe and start paring the numbers of politicians,bureaucrats and other jobsworths.
Posted by Sue on May 18, 2008 8:23 AM
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they have nothing
Posted by Steve Byrne on May 18, 2008 8:17 AM
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" - which the BBC no longer paints as a lurch to the right -"....??
It is not the business of the BBC to 'paint' anything - simply to report it as acurately as possible. If the broadcast is specifically about opinion, it should be balanced.
For example, the ridiculously oft repeated background videos on education matters, which invariably depict the UK as a nation of largely black and brown people, with the occasional white person somewhere in the back row. Such deliberate warping of perceptions is not only sinister and manipulative, it insults the audience. Those responsible for this kind of ostentatious imbalance should be sacked immediately.
As for the economy, Mr Cameron could start nowhere better than at the door of the quangos. I seem to recall some horrific figure, like 800 such monstrosities being in existence. The cost of these timewasters much be astounding.
The great incapacity benefit scam must be stopped immediately. No doctors note - no dosh!
Persons receiving healthcare must be British passport holders, or to have paid a minimum of two years NIC - no iffs, no buts. Similarly, unemployment benefit should not be shovelled out to every hard luck story presented to the idiots at the benefits office.
Who, amongst the hard-working (and voting) populace, would see these measures as 'unfair'? People are heartily sick of working hard for their families, being taxed to the hilt (directly,indirectly and stealthily) and seeing their money hosed over the feckless, idlers, freeloaders, fraudsters and totally unnecessary public 'servants'.
Finally, get those extra prisons built and sack half the social workers and probation officers and all the other bleeding heart 'professions'!
How's that Iain? About 5p in the Pound off Income Tax I would say - as a conservative estimate.
Posted by Graham King on May 18, 2008 8:05 AM
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This government’s economic policy over the last decade is and always was based on increased forms of indirect and stealth taxation, including the iniquitous Council Tax, and borrowing in order to spend more on public services and hair-brained social schemes designed to appeal to the poorest levels in society who either were not able, could not, would not or were incapable of gaining employment in what has become an economy based on service and the public sector. The only job growth area in the last decade is in public employees.

There was no economic miracle in the last 11 years; the UK economy was sound and expanding in 1997 due, in much greater part, to general global stability, apart from the vexed question of Palestine and Israel, and the growth of the global economy. A degree of economic stability was only achieved by relying on the City and financial institutions making money to offset an increasing trade deficit because of the continuing loss of our industrial and manufacturing base; and, through the rapid increase in house prices that demanded people over-extend themselves in order to purchase property.

The NHS and state Education budgets have been doubled, but, both systems continue to fail to deliver in many areas simply because increases in efficiency, productivity and competitiveness were not demanded in return for increased pay; and, we still do not have a health system and an education system that meet the needs of a rapidly expanding population and that compare to other advanced, industrial nations. Billions have been ploughed into the Child Tax Credit scheme and Sure Start, and billions wasted, because it is not aimed at those who need support and proven to be wide open to abuse costing the tax-payer approximately £6bn; and, there have been numerous accounting mistakes that have cost families many tens of millions of pounds. This is the weakness of a complicated bureaucratic and centralized system of economic control that often costs more to operate than a simplified and fair system of taxation based on income and revenue.

The promised link between pensions and earnings has not been restored meaning the basic state pension is now at least £35 a week less than it should be for a single pensioner and £60 a week less for married pensioners. The only way to reduce poverty is to leave more income and revenue in the pockets of the people and this can only be done by raising the personal allowance to a sensible level of at least £10,000 or £12,000 a year. This will reduce the level of taxation for those on the minimum wage or less and reduce the need for numerous means-tested forms in order to claw back what they have paid in income tax creating an even bigger bureaucratic nightmare in the process. Bureaucracy and over-administration are signs of a sluggish, weak and declining economy.

The defence budget over the last decade has deliberately been reduced despite the government plunging our Armed Forces into two theatres of conflict and 5 military operations; there are still reported shortages of support equipment; and, only recently it is reported that there are plans to slash the size of the Royal Navy yet further turning it into little more than a coastal defence force.

If they are to achieve office the Conservatives will need to offer a form of government with political, economic and social policies that appeal not just to the wealthiest levels but to all the sections in society. It is not just economics but employment that is important because when people are earning and able to take care of their families they feel more secure. If future government administrations fail to address the issue of growth, employment and job opportunities for this and successive generations then, regrettably, the UK will continue to subside, continue to lose international political, social and economic influence and treated with increasing contempt by other nations.

Posted by Kenneth Armitage on May 18, 2008 8:04 AM
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Well at long last the British press are waking up to the fact that The UK has been subjected to a huge con trick by Blair and Brown, with Blair playing the role of the fast talking confidant spiv salesman and Brown the devious Sheriff of Nottingham character forever inventing more ways of bleeding the people dry of their hard earned cash, why has it taken you people 11 years to suss the con?
I predicted in January that the poo would hit the fan in April when people realised the great tax grab of the removal of the 10p tax starting rate, what you are seeing right now is the trailer to the main feature film which will take place later in the year as the full effects of the Brown con are felt in the economy.
Its rather like the breaching of a dam, it starts with a few fractures occurring, then the cracks start to appear, then the cracks widen until the structure fails with massive consequences for the economy.
As the financial mess unfolds more and more people will find it impossible to borrow money to stave off the debt judgement day, when this happens they will default on their mortgage payments which will lead to escalating repossessions forcing the housing market into a steep readjustment of values as the financial institutions try to recoup their losses by selling the properties at a low ball price.
This will in turn lead to dwindling retail sales and unemployment further fuelling the cycle.
I see no way of avoiding this as the debts of the UK are so huge that it will take 20 years to repay even if inflation takes off and devalues these debts.
Posted by mike williams in Bangkok on May 18, 2008 7:56 AM
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What can the Tories offer?

Cut and slash everything in sight on the pretext that "we haven't the money, we haven't the skills and we haven't the resources, and we're not going to develop them either".

Mass unemployment in the multiple millions.

Work for £2 an hour or lose your benefit.

Persecution, and perhaps even the euthanasia, of the poor.
Posted by Michael Petek on May 18, 2008 7:28 AM
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"The market is pointing out a reality to which we must adjust."

Only in the last two paragraphs does Iain Martin emerge from the politics of neoliberalism to show an unfocussed awareness of the changes that are forthcoming.

It's already clear that the Bank of England and it's totemic CPI is an irrelevance. Joseph Stiglitz tried his best to tell us this on Newsnight last Friday, but his interlocutor failed to get the message.

We are hearing a great deal about the price of oil - 'Peak Oil' - but there seems little sign that the allegedly omniscient 'invisible hand' is coming up with an alternative fuel which will (a) be carbon neutral, and (b) replace oil's multi-purpose role in our current economy.

Ergo, the economy as we know it doesn't seem to have much of a long-term future.

Cameron has talked - not lately - about something called 'greed growth', but that phase of his thinking seems to have passed.

Brown is equally off-message.

The question remains: if the politicians and 'the market' have not yet locked on to the size and nature of the problem, the rest of us are entitled also to carry on in denial.

Posted by Tom MacFarlane on May 18, 2008 7:11 AM
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Labour to borrow 2.7 billion yet still to give billions to the EU does not make sense at all. How much longer are we going to pay the EU to take ever more money away from us? It just does not make sense.

The promise of the "scrapping of ID cards" sounds a bit like Heath in the 1970's saying, "there will be no loss of essential sovereignty" when we joined the then EEC. I think the Conservatives might find ID cards is an EU requirement for does not the EU want to share all the personal details on the Data Base?

I have no doubt at all that the Conservatives left a 'full cupboard' for Labour, but I do feel that not only will the cupboard be bare, whoever becomes the next Government, will also find that this Country has sold off many things (like Crown Property) and is in debt with many commitments through PFI.

If the Lisbon Treaty is ratified without the promised referendum, I wonder why any British politician would expect the British people to vote and pay for any full time British politician? Part time, I should think for about 15 hours a week for the EU instigates most of our Laws already, doesn't it?
Posted by Anne Palmer on May 18, 2008 6:59 AM
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Over to you Mr. Cameron. Read the DT they are turning blue at last.

You should reduce taxes, but don't talk of cutbacks, talk of effientcy. most people resent the wasted billions much more than the tax they pay.

So there should be plenty of room for increased expenditure with reduced tax. It is effientcy we require, productivity, more bang for our buck!
Posted by Patrick on May 18, 2008 6:53 AM
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I attended a presentation by our local Council
who claimed they were being transparent by
revealing what they were spending on what.

The figures were meaningless - just millions
attached to each spending category. Had they
shown the figure for each of the last ten years
for each category and explained how the figures
had moved, and why, that would have been more
like it.
Any government department boing asked to
open up its stats must account for its past, and
its future - not just its present.
Posted by Tapestry on May 18, 2008 6:32 AM
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"Fearing annihilation in a by-election, the government has borrowed a further £2.7 billion to fund a tax cut."

Maybe cut spending to the Maggotry? Starve the parasitic scumbags.

Brown is a EFing Terrorist.

Posted by Roger D. on May 18, 2008 3:42 AM
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You're not goping to do the trick by just cutting supposed Government waste, as this article seems to suggest.

You've got to cut Government itself, the good old Tory message.
In each and every area of Government, the Tories need to demonstrate how they can put people's money back in their pocket and let them take care of themselves.

Any new proposals, such as ID cards should be shoved out the window.
Posted by Gary Hyams on May 18, 2008 3:34 AM
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