Saturday 21 March 2009

~Conservative Thinking - Where & When?

Commenting on the Conservative Leadership's ability to 'mis-manage', Iain Martin writing in the Telegraph says:

"......First, there will be poor planning, based on a misreading of a tactical problem. Then the policy announcement will be botched. Leading Conservatives will start to speak out. Gradually, the leadership will realise that it needs to "clarify" its position – code for a rethink. Several months later, David Cameron will admit that things were badly handled."

If, as Iain Martin asserts: "....the Tories propose to increase the tax on wealth-creators – while raising the foreign aid budget......", surely the Conservative Leadership and Party have forgotten two basic facts.

'Wealth-creators' do what it says on the tin - they create wealth, not just for themselves but for those that work for them; and the country - they are prepared to take the risks and they stand to lose if they get it wrong, unlike the present government who have taken risks and then made sure it is not they who pay but the taxpayer!

Is not the priority of the incoming Conservative government to solve our economic crisis, before they start to help other countries solve theirs? It would appear that even amongst Conservative MPs and supporters there is discord.

It is also apparent that the Conservative Party may have the wrong candidate for Leader and for Chancellor of the Exchequer. The article reports:

"An outpouring of anger against the plans was sent to the Tory grassroots website Conseravtivehome.com.

One contributor said: "A 45p top rate of tax, over my dead body. I did not join the Conservative Party because I wanted to pay more tax, I joined because I believe lower taxes are a moral good.

"At a time when tax take is down and the economy is on its knees we should actually be lowering taxes across the board. We should be lowering the top rate of tax to encourage wealthy people to remain UK residents and UK tax payers and we should be slashing business rates to encourage more businesses to come and locate in the UK, thus generating more jobs and more revenue for HM Treasury.""

One has to wonder how many Conservative supporters would like to revisit the selection process of 2005?


1 comment:

Mark Wadsworth said...

"Conservative thinking" - an oxymoron?

As to this whole 'wealth creators' doolally, everybody who drags themselves out of bed every morning to do something useful is a 'wealth creator' - from a shelf stacker or bus driver, all the way up to the innovators, the entrepreneurs and investors.

Increasing taxes on the most successful of them is no compensation for not reducing the taxes on the people at the bottom of the pyramid.

To cut a long story, before they yap on about increasing the tax burden on the people at the top (which is pure tokenism) why not talk about reducing the tax burden on those at the bottom (like doubling the personal allowance)?