In a blistering attack on the last 14 years or so of Labour government, David Cameron has laid out some policies on the table in an interview with the Daily Express.
The first, which will please the Euro-sceptics, is a firm commitment that the UK will not join the Euro while (if) he is Prime Minister.
He has also made the firm commitment to amend the law of self-defence within the home. This will please many residents but will alarm some law enforcement experts.
But most of his political ire was directed at the ‘work-shy’. Those that milk the system and financially drag the ordinary tax-payer down via the tax system.
He said “Middle Britain has had a wretched time under Labour. This Government has taxed mortgages, marriages, pensions, petrol and travel and raised national insurance and the top rate of income tax. We cannot keep squeezing hard-working families,”
He has also said that all those on incapacity benefit will be checked to make sure their claim is justified. Whilst the jobless who claim would lose their benefits if they did not take up offers of work. He also said that housing benefit needed a massive overhaul.
Cameron also praised Thatcher and said that he wanted to cut taxes to generate growth just as she did in the 1980s.
All this talk about the work-shy supposes that there are sufficient jobs out there in the UK to soak up all those thrown off of incapacity benefit and jobseekers allowances. It was also a Tory initiative under Thatcher to put people on incapacity benefit where possible so as to massage the unemployment figures.
Let’s now look at the 1980s tax levels.
- In 1974 the income tax top rate was 83% for those earning over £20,000 per annum. When combined with a surcharge on ‘un-earned income’ this could then reach 98%. The base rate was 33%.
- After she came to power in 1979, Margaret Thatcher reduced the top rate of tax to 60% and the lower rate to 30%.
- In 1986 the base tax rate was cut further to 29%.
- The base tax rate was again cut in 1987 to 27%.
- In 1988 it was cut down to 25%.
But this time Cameron is starting out with 50%, 40% and 20% tax levels (and an obscure 10% savings rate tax for a very few people who qualify). It also took Thatcher many years and hard choices to achieve those cuts and, when he eventually gets to investigate the books, Cameron may find that he is starting off in a much worse economic position than she did at the beginning of the 1980s. Far from tax cuts we may end up with a VAT rise to 20%.
Unless the UK economy turns around now, the exchequer’s tax take will continue to drop. This means pain for everyone. The fewer who pay will have to pay more and the increasing numbers that rely on the state will continue to soak it up. Unless that is Cameron is prepared to really take the bull by the horns and become another love ‘em or hate ‘em figure, just like Maggie.
------ Other articles of interest ------
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The government bounty hunters
Vince’s graduate tax
The flight from tax
Tags: camaron, economics, jobs, News, Politics, tax, thatcher
Self-defence: permitted as long as you are being attacked. As soon as the attacker runs away or lies motionless on the floor it is no longer self-defence. If you run after a burglar who is running away and hit him with a baseball bat it ain’t no longer self-defence but an attack.
Cameron will never raise the taxes for the rich. He doesn’t dare to offend his rich friends.
He will much rather cut back on all those services the government provides: police, schools, army, building streets etc.
As for those on social benefits: sure, who can work should work.
But what if there are no jobs?
(And besides, if your full-time job earns you less than those humble social benefits on which it is difficult to live then wages are too low. Means: exploitation of employees.)
Estimations about the amount of work-shy on social benefits range around: 100.000.
This figure should be seen against the background of roughly 5 millions of unemployed people who are on social benefits. (7.8% unemployment rate in the UK in Jan 2010).
There is always abuse.
But seriously, 100.000 out of 5 million… that is a meagre 2%.
The benefits of joining the Euro far outweigh the disadvantages of not joining as has just been proved during the financial crisis. The UK thanked God they were members of the EU.
Cameron will give in just like he did about the Lisbon Treaty.
What is “Middle Britain”?
Nowadays everyone who earns a living or has an academic degree is considered to be middle class. But does somebody, who earns 30.000 Pounds a year really has that much in common with multi-millionaires like David Cameron or George Osborne or even with 200.000 Pounds a year David Hague?
Same worries?
Same ideals?
Do all of those mentioned above have to rely on the NHS or can Cameron, Osborne and Hague buy better quality medical treatment?
Do all of those mentioned above have to rely on state education or can Cameron, Osborne and Hague easily afford privately funded education?
The term “middle class” is deceitful because it implies that people of very different income and background and with very different ideas and opportunities allegedly had the same worries and ideas.
Bet Cameron will never specify who belongs to this beloved “middle class”.
Besides not only Lord As_h_croft is rumoured to be a tax exile but also Da_vid R_oss, another prominent Tory donor and advisor.