Unfortunately, the blog is the first thing that goes when I get swamped with work, so once again, it’s apologies for the lapse since my last post.
The big story of the weekend is the proposal to impose a windfall tax on the banks, something that is enthusiastically embraced by Labour and LibDems and “not discounted” by the Conservatives.
I argue that the Conservative leadership should tread very carefully before supporting such a move - let me explain why…
Gordon Brown has just announced that he is going to sell off ~£16bn of state-owned assets, such as Tote and the Student Loan Book to plug his spending gap. Reluctantly, the Conservatives and to a lesser extent the LibDems have agreed that this is necessary.
In old money, £16bn, was a lot of money. It still is, but in the Alice In Wonderland world in which we live, we should not forget that for August 2009, the budget deficit was £16.1bn.
This means that Gordon Brown’s sale will only raise enough money to pay off 1 month’s borrowing.
I am utterly confused. I admit it.
Vince Cable has just announced at his Party’s conference that he wants to impose a wealth tax of 0.5% per year on properties worth more than £1m.
I warned about this back in August 2007 when Vince first mooted this policy, then again in August this year, when I felt the chill winds of wealth taxation blowing through the left of British politics.
Conservative Home have just put up a post, asking the “10 Big Questions” any incoming Conservative Government will need to consider after the next election.
I, for my part, hope to be part of that Government, so will do my best to answer those questions here and now.
Because the Libya story has been rightly dominating the news, followed swiftly by the story of the conviction of the plane-bomb plotters, it has been a good time to bury bad news.
Still sleepy-eyed from the long summer break, it appears that the media are slowly coming back to work, before the frenetic activity of the bigger parties’ conferences.
So, following on from a story I wrote back in July, there appears to be more action from the Chancellor Alistair Darling.
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