‘Man Up’

The pressure is now on in the Tory Party. The parliamentary party, who are more loyal to David Cameron than the rest of party, have made sure the heat is now on George Osborne to produce a budget that could not have been written by Ed Balls.

Tories of all places are calling for tax cuts and to cut the debt and deficit. Last year, as well as this year, the debt will rise. This year the deficit will do so too. George Osborne has not achieved what he set out to do. There is also only 0.2% growth to boot. Alistair Darling had a better record with about 1% of growth at the end of his time. This is directly effecting the Conservatives performance for 2015 with many UKIP voters basing their swap on economic issues (see http://thingselliottsays.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/eastleigh.html)

Priti Patel has said "that our economy is struggling. Growth is sluggish, rising living costs mean families have to tighten their belts … the truth is that the taxes and regulation are a large part of the problem."

Even Kwasi Kwarteng, who chairs the free enterprise select committee, has said "We are still borrowing £120bn. We are not in a fit state to be spending money in this way … We have got to address this, and if we don't, what will happen is that we will have another government which will probably not address it and we will end up being a basket case."

"I'm quite happy to say that publicly. This is a big, big problem, and unless we can actually man up and deal with it, I think we've got big problems ahead of us."

People who have spoken out include Ben Gummer, Theresa Coffey and David Rutley, people who do not usually speak in such a disapproving tone. They are piling on Conservative pressure to have a more Conservative economic policy.

David Cameron recently said that "there would be no shift to the right" under his government. Tory MPs aren't asking for this. They are asking for a shift from Brownite economics to that of a liberal government. The problem for George Osborne is that he is too, small c, conservative. He refuses to change from the path left by the last government, indeed those that advised Mr Darling still advise him. The pressure is on to ‘man up and deal with it’ if not Mr Osborne may find that he’s out of a job (if it becomes so bad the PM will throw him off first). 

Getting Rid of Gordon

As you may know Gordon Brown graced us all with his presence this week in the House of Commons, oh what joy. However, you’d be pleased to know that there are plans a foot to make sure we do not have to suffer Gordon again. Unfortunately, unlike how the US could, if they wanted, deport Piers Morgan we cannot do the same with Gordon. I think the best way to start then is to support the Great Gordon Brown Repeal Bill.

The Great Gordon Brown Repeal Bill will be debated in parliament on Tuesday and is about scrapping Gordon’s awful hiking of the 10p tax rate. I support cutting the vast majority of taxes and this is no exception. When Gordon and his magpie chancellor decided to get rid of the 10p rate he landed a bill on the poorest in society of £232. Not only is this unfair but means the government loses revenue which can be spent sensibly on things people need, helping the economy and people too. Indeed the £6 billion hole in the treasury budget may be partially saved on benefit payments which will help the country overcome the welfare cliff we may soon fall off.

I think the Conservatives should put pressure, like we did last year on the 50p tax rate, to have this in the next budget, as well as voting for the Bill in the House. And you can help to by signing the petition to CutTaxTo10p http://greatgordonbrownrepealbill.com/.