Tory Tax Commission Calls For £21bn in Tax Cuts

This has just appeared on conservativehome - a must read.

Lord Forsyth's tax report recommends tax cuts of £21bn (BBC) over the course of the next Parliament - apparently to be funded by growth. ConservativeHome publishes the report now - download a pdf here.
This £21bn of relief includes a reduction in the basic income tax rate from 22% to 20% and the lifting of 2.5 million low earners from paying any income tax. The Tax Reform Commission also recommends the abolition of stamp duty on shares (already supported by the Tory Treasury team) and lower business taxation to make the British economy more internationally competitive. If the Commission had its way inheritance tax would also be replaced by a 'capital gains tax on death'.Labour's Ed Balls found the report whilst surfing this afternoon. Apparently it had been premmaturely posted on the Tax Commission website. Mr Balls said that the Tax Commission's prescription would leave a black hole in the public finances:
"The scale of the tax cuts is huge. The problem is there is no indication here at all as to how it will be paid for. David Cameron has denied he would cut public spending. The hole in the finances that this would create is dangerous for the economy."
Journalists are telling me that Labour are genuinely excited by this opportunity to paint David Cameron as at odds with his own Commission. Yesterday Gordon Brown highlighted the Tory leader's alleged unfunded promises.
George Osborne has also reacted:
“The Commission have given us a menu of options that merit serious consideration. Some we will accept, some we will modify and others we may reject. But the framework of our tax policy is now set. Sound Money means that stability will always come first before promises of tax cuts. We will not be promising up front, unfunded tax reductions at the next election. We will, however, rebalance our tax system. Green taxes on pollution will rise to pay for reductions in family taxes. This Report sets out some options for doing that. And we will also embark on a major simplification of business taxes that will pay for a significant reduction in our business tax rates. This report represents a major step in that direction. The battle for a simpler, fairer and more competitive tax system has begun.”
Related link from earlier today: Cameron should embrace Forsyth

Douglas Hurd in Southampton


The former foreign secretary and now Lord, the Rt. Hon. Lord Hurd of Westwell attended a social fundraiser in Southampton earlier this week in which he spoke about his life which has been one of immense public service to Britain.

He spoke about his time when he was political secretary to Edward Heath, both in opposition and in government then being elected and serving in Margaret Thatcher and John Major’s governments.

I will not go into detail about everything he said but will comment on one point that he made which is the most damming about the current government.

This was that there should be no new legislation for two years due to the amount that has been passed since 1997.

Lord Hurd spoke very critically of the way that the current government conducts itself and introduces policy without proper scrutiny and with sofa politics which does not allow for formal records to be kept (as we are seeing in the Blunket diaries this week).

For someone who has served over 30 years in the front line of politics and who has worked in numerous governments such, comments are very damning. The amount of legislation that this government has produced is amazing and the fact that members of parliament have not had time to adequately scrutinise it, means that MPs are failing in their job. This government has ruled by headline and by news story. It has failed to tackle the issues that blight people’s lives. Lord Hurd’s comments about new legislation may seem like a piece of flippancy but it would be welcomed.

Friends of the earth but not the Conservatives???

Southampton Friends of the Earth coordinator Chris Bluemel, invited me and as far as I am aware other councillors to attend a public meeting on the Climate Change Bill.

I looked at the panel and surprise surprise all the usual suspects, Reverend Ian Johnson is chairing the event and Dr Alan Whitehead MP (of burger gate scandal see http://mattdeansoton.blogspot.com/), Dr Dave Hubble (local Greenpeace Coordinator), Katie Elliot, Parliamentary Campaigner for Friends of the Earth would be the speakers.

As the Conservative spokesman in Southampton on the Environment I wrote to Chris saying how I would be prepared to attend as the Conservative representative and I am sure (but would not like to speak on behalf of her) that Jill Baston, as the city’s Cabinet member for Environment and Liberal Democrat might have an opinion.

So come on Chris, I am coming to the event so I might just ask this question,

Why have you got no one from either the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats?

Schools

Why can the council not run schools properly?

When Labour where ruining the city (they are now in partnership with the Lib Dems ruining the city) they conducted a review of secondary school places. This review predicted the future number of children attending our secondary schools.

The review currently predicted the number of spaces needed for local children to be educated in the city , however they predicted that nearly 800 children would leave the city every day to be educated by Hampshire county council.

If this current review (see earlier postings) succeeds and the Lib Dems and Labour close two schools, what will happen in the future? There is a growing trend for parents to have their children educated outside the city. Will this increase? Or has this been taken into consideration as it was not previously when the last review was undertaken?

Why do so many parents wish their children to be educated out side the city? What is the city attempting to do to improve standards? In all the meetings that I have attended across the city, not once have they mentioned how they intend to improve standards. This is a disgrace and another reason why education boss, Cllr Milton should resign.

Gordon's growth

Gordon's achieves 116% growth.....in UK tax laws


On tax cutter’s blog he has worked out Gordon’s achievement as chancellor

9,841 pages of direct tax law now exist - there were 4,555 on 1 May 1997 - an 116% increase12,763 pages of total tax law now exist - vs 7,013 on Brown becoming Chancellor, an 82% increase

The only reason that the VAT laws have grown slowly is that Gordon's too scared of changing the rules without the EU's permission. The above stats miss out Gordon's bungled tax reforms that he' s since had to repeal, eg the zero rate of corporation tax for small businesses, stamp duty relief for disadvantaged areas, numerous goes at film tax reform etc. All told UK tax law is a mess. Whilst the rest of the developed world seeks to make itself more attractive for investment the self-penned Iron Chancellor rusts the UK economy with pointless complexity.

Rotten Boroughs

Is the rotten borough back? I ask this question as it was a question that was raised when I was having a meal with a couple of friends. The Great Reform Act of 1832 did away with the concept of people being employed by the local politician, thus depending upon a job by the elected incumbent of the seat. This was an issue at the beginning of the 18th century when local landowners and mill owners could put extreme pressure on people to vote for them.

With Gordon Brown’s expansion of the state and the creation of a bureaucracy that has never the like been seen, so has the rotten borough returned. Will people vote against a party or even an MP that provides jobs through the state mechanism, if other political parties would abolish the jobs?

Thus the creation of rotten boroughs has returned? The Government has created a raft of jobs which has created a dependency on the state. Will a person vote against a government which could result in them being sent their P45? The massive increase in the state which is resulting in the over taxation of the people with the overt diversion of money from the south of England to the north has resulted in a state within a state. This is a dangerous very dangerous situation.

UKIP resignation

The resignation letter from UKIP Leadership candidate, Richard Suchorzewski makes interesting reading:

Dear Chairman,

Please be so good as to accept, and post on UKIP.org, this my letter of resignation from The UK Independence Party. It was a privilege to be elected Chairman of UKIP Wales and work to represent the members in restructuring and introducing an organisational structure for growth. I would like to thank, for their invaluable assistance, John Bufton as Regional Organiser and my hard working and supportive committee and members in Wales. I am pleased to have been able to help turn UKIP Wales around and put in place foundations for growth and success in the National Assembly Elections next May. I was honoured to be elected by the membership to represent them on the NEC, where they believed I had specialist skills and experience to best represent their interests, to the benefit of UKIP and its primary cause. When I stood for the leadership election I did so, on a ticket of Transparency, Integrity and Equality. These standards reflect my inner beliefs, as well as the moral, ethical and Christian principles upon which I have based my whole life. I knew there were significant problems with the Party, and also believed that the moral integrity of a number of people at the top left much to be desired. It was my belief that should I be elected leader these problems could be resolved and the Party then could move forward together, on a firmer footing in probity and strength. Nothing however prepared me for the scurrilous behaviour, defamatory comments and downright dishonesty of some of Nigel Farage's & David Bannerman's staff, supporters and members of the Press Office staff, in which they clearly colluded. I was accused of having associations with the BNP – even when these scoundrels knew that my grandfather was murdered by the Nazis in a concentration camp and my Great Grandfather was discovered hanged by them from a lamp post near his home by my 14 year old Father. Further I am angry that UKIP's leadership were happy to collude in this base and obscene slur, particularly in the light of the fact that I have been 'courting' a young woman from St Lucia for the last 2 years, she herself has been victimised by racial abuse. I was accused of being a homosexual, despite no evidence of this, and my having been happily married for 14 years, a marriage which sadly ended in an amicable divorce and now subsequently I am courting the above mentioned lady. I was accused of having 'run up' a company debt of £4millions in one of my businesses when these accusers knew that I had purchased the company with secured debts, that it had already accrued, amounting to £4millions of losses. My business is in the field of mergers and acquisitions, specialising in the purchase, development and sale of problematic companies. My critics in this area are either commercial illiterates or unarguably dishonest either of which reflects ill on the competence of the new leadership. My local newspaper was contacted by an UKIP official and advised to look into some of these accusations – in order to attempt to taint my unblemished reputation. Even friends within my own local Conservative Party have informed me that they were asked for 'any dirt' they had on me including my political, personal and business affairs. This list shamefully goes on. Despite all of this I was willing to forgive and forget. I called for Party unity behind the new leader Nigel Farage, regardless of how he had gained his new position. I hoped this would in some way result in a change of attitude. Clearly it did NOT. Farage colluded with, and thus endorsed the scurrilous behaviour. He was not prepared for his staff to apologise for the BNP allegations as he felt that the issue 'would go away' – and he tried to justify the concern on the basis that a fellow NEC member David Abbott volunteered his support of my leadership candidacy. (David Abbott is the very man whom Farage and his secretary Douglas Denny introduced and actively supported to the NEC and only turned against when he supported my candidacy.) Farage also claimed concern in that a Mr Andrew Edwards supported my leadership bid on an internet blog that he runs. I am to be tainted by this, even though I have never posted on his site, spoken to, nor communicated with the said person, who I am advised is NOT a member of UKIP. Farage has also claimed that a long term associate of his, Greg Lance-Watkins is a supporter and associate of the BNP, of which I have seen no evidence – yet this seems to besmirch my reputation, as G.L-W . openly supported my candidacy, having stated, based on extensive personal dealings with Nigel Farage that "he was a good performer for UKIP but lacked either the probity or competence to lead UKIP." This logic that UKIP's new leader has adopted if seriously applied, must call into question his own credentials, bearing in mind both his long term association with G.L-W. and that the BNP actually refused to stand against Farage, and supported, his candidacy at the Bromley by-election. Does this make Nigel a BNP supporter? Rather than be magnanimous in victory and help the Party unite, Nigel and his clique overturned a perfectly legitimate democratic vote at the NEC which had elected Geoffrey Kingscott (a most honourable man) as Party Secretary, denying the Party of another person with integrity at the top, and placing his supporter the discredited Douglas Denny in the post. A witch hunt has now commenced, seemingly with the aim to disingenuously massage MEP lists, with the disciplinary hearing of Peter Baker for daring to make public his committee's majority voted opposition to Roger Knapman's morally questionable exploitation and involvement in a Polish Workers import business run by his son. Similarly Dennis Brookes a loyal and devoted supporter and Regional Organiser of UKIP would seem to have been victimised, for having the temerity not to object to his committee's support of my candidacy, and this apparently has contributed to losing him his job. I have no doubt from Nigel's discussion with me, subsequent to the election, that others too will suffer similar fates. On policy issues, Nigel has made statements already, that make it clear to me, we are to become a shadow alternative Tory Party. A pressure group created to persuade the Tories to dump Cameron and change its policy on the EU. I am sorry; I did not leave the real Tory party to join a poor imitation. I believed UKIP was sincere in its endeavour to extricate Britain from the European Union, returning sovereignty to a British Parliament and playing a full independent part in that new Parliament. On financial and transparency issues, I believe a cloud still overhangs the Ashford call centre and various aspects of UKIP accounts. Also the financial dealings and involvement in fraud, (as exposed by the media), of Tom Wise, one of UKIP's MEP's, have not adequately been resolved. Likewise there has been a lack of transparency of others. I have contended that funding mechanisms are too heavily reliant on the EU, as this makes us subservient to the very body from which we wish to disassociate and which we openly accuse of corruption particularly in the area of accounting!. I stood for leader knowing full well that it was a challenge I was unlikely to win. Farage had control of a number of advantages that if abused would guarantee him success. Knowing this, I was more than surprised that he allowed his cronies, supporters and certain staff to openly and reprehensibly lie and rubbish a loyal UKIP member, with elected duties, who devoted the last 2 years of his life, full time, unpaid, to help UKIP progress. Even now in 'victory', Farage appears determined not to change his ways, and because of this I cannot support this Party under his leadership any longer. Reluctantly I am left with no honourable action open to me other than leave, as I am not prepared to give my good name, reputation and integrity in support of Farage and many in his clique. I therefore stand alongside other Party devotees and former NEC members, Anthony Butcher, Gill Chant and others (not to mention the many activists who have already resigned). My heart and my grateful thanks go out to all of those who supported me and the values in which we believed, and those who have committed so much of their lives in their patriotic pursuit of regaining democracy, British Independence and Sovereignty. It does not give me any satisfaction to realise that the old saying "Fish Rots from the Head Down" may have more than a cursory resemblance to UKIP. Please be so good as to convey to the membership my very best wishes and thanks for allowing me to serve them! At the moment I feel honour bound to continue the struggle for liberation from the EU and better Governance outside of UKIP, but would be happy to reconsider my position should there be notable changes within UKIP in the future under very different leadership.

Yours Sincerely, Richard Suchorzewski UKIP Wales Chairman
(resigned 5th Oct 2006) NEC Member (resigned 5th Oct 2006).