Blog:Tory Tax Cut - Except For Widows
From Bolton Interweb
del.icio.usMyles Aweigh, Election Correspondent, 10th April 2010
Well except for widows, co-habiting people, single people, single parent families, and anyone not married or in a civil partnership. If you wanted to come up with a truly divisive tax policy your opponents could rip to shreds and fling back at your face this was it. With a few weeks to go, courting a demographic group that is probably already in your camp whilst alienating millions you need to win an election with, this was it. Were there marches and riots in the streets demanding justice for married couples? Was there a big national debate demanding action for an underprivileged group with no voice? Was there a newspaper campaign that needed a decisive answer? No, no, and no.
It is a policy full of absolute nonsense, inconsistency, and gaffe potential. Is it justice as Tory spokesmen are saying? No, and very few people are going to fall for that when "what about the widows" is being shouted back. Is it a vote winner? No, it is worth £150 a year to 4 million people most of whom would like be Tory voters anyway and it is too small a bribe to win over many of the rest. But it will swing many more floating voters who would be losers under this plan away along with those who think the money is better spent paying down the national debt or keeping public services going. Are there losers - the Tories claim no-one will lose, there are only winners? Of course, any redistribution of wealth through taxes has losers and in this case many more losers than winners. Why? Because the money spent could be spent paying back government debt that impacts on us all. Plus the perception will be that those not getting the tax cut are being discriminated against and feel they will be losers regardless of whether they end up paying more. Is it a moral move? No, the government has no place dictating how people arrange their relationships. It is social engineering of a type rejected decades ago.
Where is the money coming from? Clever, it is from a tax on those evil banks. So the banks are paying not us. Not exactly. Take a billion pounds from the banks and the pension funds lose dividend income, banks cut their costs and jobs are lost directly and indirectly, and/or the cost of borrowing and charges rise, impacting on businesses and individuals. So we all pay for this tax cut.
Now you see the Tory hierarchy out and about with their wives - won't they all gain? Probably not but that will not be the perception. A PR mess. There is a big opportunity for Labour, Lib Dems, and the rest to keep this nonsense on the front pages and if they do then this could be the election killer for the Conservatives. You wonder whether they have a single brain cell between them. So, you have a tax cut for Mr and Mrs Middle Class where the wife doesn't need to work? Yes, we're correcting an injustice. And nothing for widows, battered ex-wives with kids to bring up on their own? No, we can't afford that.
I am the demographic the Tories need to swing to win. The disillusioned New Labour Blairite who voted Tory in 1992 and Labour in 1997, the group that needs to come home after 13 years. There is nothing in this for me, in fact I am in the group being discriminated against. More proof that Osbourne isn't qualified to run a market stall let alone the nation's finances. Could this be David Cameron's Kinnock moment, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory? Conceivably if the others can capitalise. I am certainly coming to the conclusion that a Conservative government would be an absolute disaster and I really really want to have the choice to vote for them.
The Tories also have a crazy plan for a freeze on IT projects. Apart from the jobs lost, many of those projects are crucial to reducing government waste. So the plan is counter-productive. By all means target IT that is not paying its way, but a blanket freeze is completely stupid. They won't blanket freeze but why say they will and open the door for holes to be picked in their credibility.
In the meantime, the Lib Dems promise that no-one earning less than £10,000 will pay tax. I like it. Fair and simple and no obvious losers that would vote Lib Dem anyway. Well done Vince.
© Evrose, 2010
