The Truth Is Revealed

As has been hinted for a long time by Labour MPs, if they were to be in government middle earners would be taxed more. Well toady* was the day that Labour came clean and revealed to the world what it's new tax policy would be. Labour's Deputy Leader, Harriet Harman said that 'people on middle incomes should contribute more through their taxes'. Very revealing.

I'm sure Ed Miliband really loved Harperson's comments by spilling the beans. Her extra intervention in PMQs of "they should ... it's true" was amazingly helpful also. Labour squeezes the 'squeezed middle'. I hope Ed Miliband has had a really good start to his summer hols.

*Ok it was Yesterday on LBC but everyone was talking about a re-shuffle.

Labour Responds To Road Trip 2015

The Labour Party have now begun to respond to the grass roots movement of Road Trip 2015. They have been organising national campaign days for Young Labour and Labour Students on the same day as Road Trips. This was the view yesterday with the Conservatives in Portsmouth and Labour in Broxtowe (next door to Nottingham South).

Photo courtesy of Colonel Cooper.

135 Conservatives in Portsmouth and 22 Labourites in Broxtowe. Labour's campaign days are going really well. But will Road Trip win the Conservatives a majority?

Nottingham Labour On Strike Against Itself

Today Nottingham Labour is on strike against itself. Nottingham Labour councillors, prospective councillors and activists have either stopped working for the people of Nottingham or are encouraging others to stop working for Nottingham City Council. The City Council is Labour controlled so in essence they're striking against themselves.

The Nottingham Labour official twitter account @NG_Labour have re-tweeted Steve Battlemuch the Labour councillor for Wollaton West in support of his participation in a strike march for Nottingham City Council. Cllr Battlemuch works full time for the PCS union.

Cllr Battlemuch says that other councillors had joined him on the picket lines but we are unsure exactly which ones. However, checking the Twitter accounts of Nottingham Labour councillors reveals a few who are supporting or are out on strike. These include Cllrs Sally Longford for Wollaton East and Lenton Abbey and David Mellon, who is the lead councillor for children and also standing as the Labour candidate to be MP for Rushcliffe.

Prospective Wollaton West councillor and trade union official, Nick Raine, was also out on strike with Dennis Skinner MP in Chesterfield. His twitter was full of tweets urging others to stop working for Nottingham City Council, which he wants to work for. It's a bit odd that the slate of prospective Labour councillors for Wollaton West are union officials. I wonder if the residents approve of this?

I haven't been able to confirm if other Labour councillors were out on strike, the likelihood is more were. But isn't it a bit odd for Nottingham Labour councillors, prospective councillors and activists to try and urge people to stop working in the City Council which they control. Essentially they are giving out the message that people shouldn't work for them. I find that a bit strange. It's not often that people strike against themselves. Perhaps it is an epiphany for Nottingham Labour as they have realised they really are not very good at running the City Council? Bring on the 2015 local elections and hopefully a Conservative victory then.

The Conservatives are very clear on strike action. The closure of 11 day care centres, 27 schools (with 20 partially closed), 9 children's centres, 3 leisure centres (6 with some disruption), all but one library, Nottingham Castle and the stoppage of all bin collections in Nottingham is not on (other services may have been affected too). People need these services and they should not be disrupted by quasi-political strikes. Everyone today has had their life made harder in some way. It's just a shame Nottingham Labour are backing these strikes and that Red Ed is a not saying anything and quietly supporting these strikes too.

Vote Labour, Get A Free Owl

After a bad few weeks the Labour party have taken what they think is a wise step and offered a policy of a free owl for everyone. The Labour Party press team have take to Twitter to announce that "everybody should have his own owl".

Is this an attempt to turn Britain into a real life Hogwarts or just promotion of falconry? It could be association between the 'wise' old owl and the Labour Party, although one look at Ed Miliband would make voters think otherwise. I bet most of the Labour Press team found announcing this policy a hoot. One thing is for sure it is not the first time Labour have promoted a policy of having your own owl as this clearly unedited photo of one of Gordon Brown's last PMQs performances shows.

The not so wise Gordon Brown.

Weekly Poll Lowdown

Democracy lives on through #ThingsElliottSays' weekly poll. 69% of you want there to be a referendum on the EU. 31% are either Lib Dems or members of the House of Lords, that fine democratic institution. But it's good to see that roughly you're on the money when it comes to public opinion. The Let Britain Decide Literature proudly boasts that 62% of people want a referendum on Europe according to YouGov. 70% was also the average amount of people who wanted a vote on the EU when the People's Pledge conducting a few polls in marginal constituencies up and down the country.

Should we Let Britain Decide over Europe?

Yes	69%
No	31%
Unsure	0%

Total votes: 65

It will come as no surprise to you that I would like to see a referendum on the EU. For far too long we have had no say on the matter and considering, either through deception or massive evolution, the EU is no longer the trading bloc we signed up to in the 1970s we deserve to say whether we should be in it or not. In a truly functioning democracy I think people deserve a say. That is why I think Labour and the Lib Dems are making a big mistake over this referendum.

The Lib Dems, although they are trying to chase the people who are solid Europhiles, are not actually defending their beliefs. Challenging Nigel Farage to a debate on LBC and saying the odd word about how we must stay in Europe is not going to win them many of these votes. What a Europhile voter would respond to the best, even if they don't per se want a referendum*, would be to engage with the Let Britain Decide campaign by backing a referendum in the House of Commons. A robust defence of the European Union could see us stay inside it. There is undoubtedly going to be an EU referendum now but the decision to leave is by no means decided and is a very big ask. Its not like this tactic hasn't been tried in some way with great success by the Lib Dems before.

Don't you wish the Lib Dems would keep to their promises.

Labour too have missed a good chance because they could have essentially nulled any polling gain the Conservatives could have from this referendum. As polling suggests time and again Europe is not the biggest problem as seen by the average voter. This is mostly because the EU is actually fairly distant in a lot of respects to everyday life, not that everyone over a copy of a newspaper doesn't have a breakfast table moan about the EU with an inevitable article everyday. But people still care and there is a small but not insignificant amount of voters who do have the European Union as a top priority especially when combined with immigration. If Labour wants a realistic majority, because their 35% strategic will not work depending on how well previous Lib Dem voters dig in, they need to try win back some of the people concerned with Europe and immigration that follows from it.

This man, who lined his pockets with millions from Brussels, may be a reason why Labour won't back a referendum.

I would be surprised if all the main parties do not have a referendum in their manifesto for these reasons; although stranger things have happened. Personally I am very likely to vote out, Dave will have to get a lot back if he wants my vote in 2017. When trade is shrinking inside the EU and the rest of the world is booming, what's the point of shackling ourselves to a cartel?

Vote in the New Poll.

* A fair proportion of those who want a vote have already decided they want to stay in Europe but want people to voice their opinions.

50p Immorality

Yesterday Ed Balls, who hasn't said anything for a month despite being second in command of Labour, declared that he wanted to bring back the 50p tax rate. Oh dear, when will these people learn.

Firstly let's examine what Ed Balls said:

"When the deficit is still high, when tough times are now set to last well into the next parliament, when for ordinary families their real incomes are falling and taxes have risen, it cannot be right for David Cameron and George Osborne to have chosen to give the richest people in the country a huge tax cut. That's why, for the next parliament, the next Labour government will reverse this government's top rate tax cut so we can finish the job of getting the deficit down and do it fairly. For the next parliament, we will restore the 50p top rate ... reversing this unfair tax cut for the richest 1% of people in the country."

I'd choose Osborne over Balls any day.

Essentially Ed Balls is making a moral statement. He could have said instead "how dare the rich people not contribute more as a percentage in tax. Its their fault for the recession and we want to make them pay. Its not fair for the everyone else". 

The Conservatives brought in the 45p tax rate and now the rich pay more.

There is one killer argument for why it was right for the Conservatives to cut the 50p tax rate. At 45p the rich may be taxed less as a % but the top 1% now pay more money into the treasury. The 50p tax rate raised either a negligible or no money for the Government to spend (we're not exactly sure because if money did come in the amount was too small to notice and record). The Governments policy of cutting the 50p rate to 45p has brought in £1.5 billion in the first month on top of the tiny amount of money that was/wasn't made under a 50p tax rate. In theory the 45p tax rate should at least bring in £18 billion a year to be spent on the public. This figure is much more than the most outlandish predictions of revenues for the 50p tax rate of £3 billion per year when introduced by Alistair Darling in 2010.

This means Ed Balls only one thing. Ed Balls is an immoral man. He is saying to the British People, despite the money raised in this tax cut coming in a free market fashion which boosts business, jobs and living standards, that people should receive a cut in vital services such as health and education to pay for a 'fairer' tax system. I don't know about you but what is not fair is cutting services when you do not have to. Ed Balls is immorally saying to the poorest bare more of the burden, pay more tax and we'll in the mean time moan at the rich for not doing enough. I don't think that is fair. It is immoral, but then that's the Labour Party for you.

Ed Balls learnt from one of the best when it comes to immorality, remember Labour scrapped the 10p tax rate.

I think this argument is the best at countering opposition to a 45p tax rate. Leave alone how its creates more jobs, allows for wages to rise and brings more intellectuals and ideas to Britain. The killer point is that Ed Balls is really saying to the poorest in society you should have less money so we can pretend to be morally outraged. Ed Balls, Red Ed and the rest of the Labour Party are morally vacuous. 

Weekly Poll Lowdown

In this weekly poll I asked you to become YouGov (or more realistically Betfred or Ladbrokes). You seem to think that by the end of this year the Conservatives will be ahead in the polls. A fair proportion also believe that things will stay as they are with Labour being in the lead. Some mad people think the UKIP will take the lead in the polls and the most insane of you believe the Lib Dems will have the highest proportion of votes. I think 4% of you need to see some sort of therapist.

Which Party will have the largest percentage of the votes by the end of this year?

Conservative	43%
Labour	34%
Lib Dem	4%
UKIP	20%
No Idea	0%

Total votes: 56

Before I essentially start stabbing into the dark to try and predict what is going on I must say that any predictions are based on current trends. Trends can change, events can happen. This is why interpreting the results of a poll are so hard, a poll is almost out of date the moment it is published in this weird political whirlpool that exists in Westminster.

Personally though I could see the Conservatives having some sort of lead in polling by December 2014. Since the Autumn Statement, which was in December or winter for some reason, there has been a growing belief that the Conservatives have got it right on the economy and that the United Kingdom is surging upwards at a decent pace. It's pretty hard to argue with 1% growth figures and ones which are predicted to be over 2% this year.

Coupled with this is employment is up by 1.6 million since 2010 and is likely to further increase. Unemployment is also tumbling. Last month saw the second biggest fall on record so that now 7.1% of the workforce are unemployed (closing in on the Bank of England 7% unemployment level for considering raising interest rates). In fact in the last few months the decline in unemployment has been great enough for it to be likely to reach just above or at the pre-recession level by the General Election.

Labour is also all over the place like a very confused octopus. Labour have picked too many and terrible choices of things to talk about over the last few months. For example no one trusts Labour on welfare and yet for half of January they have chosen to lecture the British people about how to reform the failed system they created. It's no wonder the public see the Conservatives as best to deal with welfare. For the last month as well they have been talking about immigration, an issue with very strong opinions. Yet Labour did the most damage by applying no restrictions on immigration and not implementing migration controls with the rest of Europe. Their choices have been poor but selecting two major issues in one month is almost as bad, if I were the average voter I'd be perplexed by what is going on.

The one area where Labour has been concentrating on, and will continue to do so because they has positioned themselves to the point where they can no longer stop, is the cost of living.  There are many problems with putting all your eggs in this basket. Firstly it is marketed as a cost of living crisis. As was pointed out by Andrew Neil, the idea this is a crisis is completely hyperbolic as retail sales are going up caused by middle and low earners spending more. Secondly everyone always complains about the cost of living even in the best economic climates. This is rightly so as people want to keep as much of their own money but this means it has never been a deciding factor in a General Election. The best way to talk about the cost of living is to target a few substantial issues and then talk about them lots, like the Conservatives have done with fuel duty. You don't get anywhere by complaining about everything and therefore nothing. Lastly, although I would not be as brave as the Government or Gudio Fawkes to proclaim the cost of living problem is over, things can only get better from here on in as we have seen with high predicted growth rates and pretty low inflation. There is clearly a shift in opinions on the squeeze.

With these general trends considered I could imagine a 2 or 3 % lead in the polls for the Conservatives  by December 2014. I believe the tide of Labour leading in the polls will turn sometime over the summer. It's not going to get any better for Labour considering the economics and their past record of picking poor places to make a political stand.

Vote in the new poll. 

Labour Promises to Get Tough on Benefits

If I could give the Labour Party one good piece of advice it is do not talk about benefits. Considering how it was the Labour Party that trapped millions of people on benefit payouts leaving a significant proportion of the population to rot and a few to abuse the system, the British public doesn't want to hear any lectures on welfare from Labour. 

However, Rachel Reeves, the new Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary*, has said that “A Labour government will introduce a Basic Skills Test to assess all new claimants for Job Seekers Allowance within six weeks of claiming benefits." #ThingsElliottSays has managed to get a copy of this new skills test that Labour will use if they're returned to power in 2015.

First seen on Guido Fawkes.

Very testing. No wonder this has been easily shown up by the Conservatives who have said "Labour are copying a Conservative policy that already exists and that is superior to the one they are proposing. After 13 years of Labour running our education system, many young people looking for work do not have the English and Maths skills they need to get a job. That's why, starting in some areas at first, anyone aged 18 to 21 signing on without these basic skills will be required to undertake training from day one or lose their benefits."

Its only the Conservatives who can get people off benefits and back into work. Vote for the Conservative Party, vote for the Workers Party.

*She has replaced Baldermort, otherwise known as Liam Byrne, because the Unite union told Red Ed to get rid of him.

Labour is in a Mess

I have no idea what is going on in the Labour Party at this moment. Red Ed seems to be changing direction every single day. Its not going well for Ed now that wages are rising above inflation and it is likely to stay that way now. Although people still feeling the pinch this is start to ease and the 'cost of living crisis' is starting to end. f course the Conservatives have long term plans to help people up and down the country but I ask again, what are Labours plans?

The Weekly Poll Lowdown (with a 2 and 1/2 week delay)

After a fairly long break of 6 days and having consigned weaknesses of 1920s Japanese Democracy and Mercantilism to the history books, #ThingsElliottSays has returned for a weekly (with a 2 and 1/2 week delay) poll lowdown.

Well, with a high turnout of 72, we have pretty accurate figures which show that 60% of you believe that an investigation should be launched into the practices of the Unite Union after the Grangemouth dispute. Just over a third of you however disagree, I'd expect some of these votes are from those who are fully paid up Unite (formerly Labour Party) members.

It was all happening at Grangemouth.

Should the Government launch an inquiry into the Unite Union and their tactics during the Grangemouth dispute?

Yes.	60%
No.	35%
Unsure.	6%

Total votes: 72

Firstly let's run through what has alleged to have happened. The Unite Grangemouth leader, a chap named Stephen Deans who was involved in the voting rigging at Falkirk, has been using 'leverage tactics' against Ienos the people who run Grangemooth. 'Leverage tactics' from eyewitness reports and photos is not setting up a picket at the factory and giving a friendly wave to all the people going in, nor is it going down to London to shout at central HQ. What it involves is a strong mob turning up at bosses houses, in Hampshire not Scotland, with a giant rat threatening and bullying families and then possibly telling everyone how evil the occupant of the house is whilst distributing wanted posters of him. All of these were tactics legitimised, organised and encouraged by Mr Deans, who Dave described as a 'rogue union official'. He seems a very nice man.

Someone's house is a totally legitimate scene for an industrial dispute according to Stephen Deans.

I am very surprised it has had to come to David Cameron and the police launching investigations into this saga. As a trade union which wants to command the public's respect and wants to look after members jobs, or should want to at least, the Unite Union when it heard of what has happened should have launched an investigation. However Len McCluskey has said there will be no internal investigation and any inquiry is a 'Tory Stunt'.

I don't have Pogonophobia or anything but I really hate Len McCluskey's beard.

Then, if Unite refuses to do something any trade union should do, the onus is on the very linked Labour party to see what sort of people they're dealing with as partners and find out what has been going on. Knowing how Ed Miliband wants an inquiry into absolutely everything, from the price of bananas to energy prices (which he made rise), it's surprising Red Ed hasn't called an investigation into this. Perhaps the fact that Unite now funds 77% of the Labour Party and Labour has announced it will no longer seek to change its role with trade unions is a reason why they're pretty happy with their current trade union standing.

I don't think it is right to intimidate and call it a 'protest'. Nor should you 'protest' at somebody's house and involve their family. In fact this reminds me of the nasty days of Labour and trade unions; perhaps we are returning somewhat to that. I doubt Ed Miliband will change any laws but he seems to be very good at turning a blind eye at all the things wrong with his party. 

Vote in the new weekly poll (I promise it will be weekly).

Need I say any more.

Cartoon: A Forbidden Romance

A very good piece of work from one Isaac Duffy, keep up the drawing.

Weekly Poll Lowdown

Now that socialism is alive and well in the Labour Party I asked you what you thought about it. 54% of you have decried Socialism whilst 40% of you have backed the Labour Party in their unaccounted and unusable  policies. This either means that a lot of you are having a joke or are big Labour supporters who, in the largest display ever of stupidity over sense, back a Labour government in 2015. If you're the later I hope my blog highly annoys you.

Are you looking forward to a Labour Government which will bring back socialism and has £28 billion of spending unaccounted for?

Yes	40%
No	54%
Unsure	6%

Total votes: 35

How on Earth can the electorate back a socialist government? Admittedly some people have probably forgotten what Britain was like in the 1960s and 1970s, but history, when it is so clear that socialism is a death sentence for the country, is not the way to go around winning elections. The electorate will not want a return to a darker Britain where rubbish piled up in the streets, manufacturing declined, unemployment grew, the state controlled your lives and you paid the state twice when drinking in a state run pub. 

Vote Labour for Socialist failure.

Red Ed's policies have become greater than laughable. An apprenticeship programme illegal under European Law. Nationalisation of privately held land when the state deems it fit to take. Fixing prices on energy so that everyone pays more because nobody on the Labour front bench wanted to use any logic. Oh yes and, the icing on the cake, none of the new ideas for 'government'* are costed at all. So spending is going up, up, up and so is the debt and deficit. The UK's economic situation would be getting worse under Labour. 

But why has Labour done this? We know these are not vote winning ideas. Its because they're so much controlled by the trade unions, Especially Ed Miliband, that all the policies are written by them. A Labour government is really a Unite government. Which is good if you're a civil servant paid at £50,000 who is usually idle or trying to destroy all government policy; not so good if you're a hard working person. Ed Miliband is too weak to do the right thing for people.

Indeed it is only the Conservative who are for the population of the UK. If you're a hard working person who wants to improve their lives make sure you vote Conservative.

Vote Conservative.

*It's very hard to call it government rather than a massive mess.

Back and Then Gone

I'm back after a break of a few days. Why, you may ask, were there no postings? Well it's because, between watching several episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus, I was unable to write from the shock of the Labour Party Conference.

You may remember that I wrote about how Red Ed is "bringing back socialism", well he really is. Labour are proposing price controls on Energy Companies, the Nationalisation of land not built upon by developers and the Royal Mail, raids on pensions through the pretence on a tax on bankers and the return to high taxes for all when we all know that the lower the taxes are the more money the government gets.

And why are they doing this? It's all because of Union control. Ed Miliband who was elected by them is now promising a return to an age where unaccountable Trade Unions were powerful over the people. Where unions could stop a country economically, nurses refused to treat people and corpses were unburied. The good old age of Socialist Britain, hey. I bet Len McLuskey is pleased though.

At least we can start filling in this empty book.

This is a stupid move for Ed Miliband because people don't want socialism. It's becoming clearer by the day as policy announcements unwind that this is a failed plan and many in Labour recognise this. Chuka Umunna, Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper are opposed to Ed's energy plans and so are Peter Mandleson and Tony Blair, who knows how Labour can win elections. Ed Miliband is going out of his way so much to make a 2015 Conservative Majority more likely. 

So what now for me? Well I'm off to conference to see Dave and chums tell us all what they have planned for a Conservative victory. I'm much looking forward to seeing friends and mocking Nadim Muslim, interim chair at Nottingham Trent, for his excellent photo on his pass. I want to do a few posts during conference but this may not happen because I want to be doing as much as possible. So see you in Manchester. 

Great Picture Nadim.

P.S. If you're dying to see the results of the weekly poll, I'll announce the results of the weekly poll on Thursday and do a short poll on Conservative Conference after that.