Oh, well. Suppose it was too much to hope for. The Tories' policy on inheritance tax has been shamelessly nicked - doubling the threshold for the rich. Borrowing is doubling to £8billion pay for the Government's mounting debts due to PFI and privatisation. And public service spending will be straitjacketed. The BBC's Nick Robinson seems to think this is Labour adopting Conservative policy. What's new......resdistribution of wealth....... to the rich. No wonder Gordon has switched to blue ties.
Tuesday, 9 October 2007
DARLING DONS OSBORNE'S MANTLE
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9 comments:
Totally with you on this one - we're not even bothering to try and convert people to our values, and still letting the Tories set the agenda...very sad indeed.
The IHT proposal isn't as bad as it sounds - it's not actually increasing the personal threshold at all. It's simply allowing the two people in a marriage / civil partnership to combine their two £300,000 personal tax allowances to form a combined £600,000 allowance. Couples can already do this providing they are good at tax planning. Darling is just ensuring all married couples can do this now whether they have a good knowledge of the financial system or not.
The point is that. aside from some welcome proposals on capital gains tax, this CSR does little to address basic inequalities and will only widen the gaps between rich and poor.
Dear Susan
As you can see from my own blog, I see yesterday's statement from Alistair Darling as another in the recent 10/11 year run of Labour budgets previews. Public opinion still sees us as a safe pair of hands with the economy. Historically this is a first for Labour. No Labour chancellor is going to want to risk that switch in perception.
So what should we members expect? I reject the idea that Darling stole Tory ideas. Rather the Tories have been forced to accept the need for redistributive taxation.
We will only be able to go further when there is a better public understanding of the direction of travel to achieve a fairer society.
That is the nub of the challenge facing our Leader. As I blogged after the PLP on Monday, Brown still hasn't got the message. But that's about rebuilding the Party, not complaining about snitching Tory tax plans (especially when the tax plans are rooted in redistributive ideology stolen by the Tories from the Left.)
How does raising the inheritance tax threshold fit in with any Labour ideology.?It simply benefits the well-off.Concessions on capital gains tax welcome but more public spending curbs on NHS and education. ??
I was not aware that fiscal drag was part of Labour's commitment to fairness. Careful examination shows that even after the changes announced the threshold should be even higher. Curbs on NHS and education spending? Sorry, real increases in spending are just that - increases and real.
Peter, surely the point is that the moment the Tories accept the need for taxation on the super-rich is precisely the moment when Labour should take that as the new centre-right and plot its own centre-left policies as a more radical, progressive alternative. Here, we're simply moving in the Tory direction instead of calling for radical action to combat inequality. I don't see why you're so proud about it.
Dear John
Let's not forget this was the Pre Budget Report. I agree more needs to be done to combat inequality. We need to be campaigning for that through our NPF reps, CLPs and branches. No?
The leadership of the Labour Party should not need anyone to remind it that the primary purpose of this party is increasing equality - this aim should be implicit in everything we do. But since Brown seems to have forgotten that, you're right that we must prioritise this issue. Frankly, it shouldn't be necessary - it is after all in our constitution.
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