George Osborne has just appeared on the Andrew Marr Show. Once again he put on an excellent performance, speaking clearly and getting his point out loud and clear. I cannot understand all those fools who feel the need to question his abilities every time we have blip in the polls or Labour trolls start stirring it up. People must remember that Labour have targeted Osborne for a reason, and the reason is that Cameron and Osborne are a great team - both are great in front of camera or an audience.
News of last nights ICM poll that showed the Conservatives maintaining their double digit lead (Con 42%, Lab on 31% and the Lib Dem on 19%) was followed by an incredibly damaging report from the BBC (shocker). The BBC's reporter was stopping the general public in the high street to ask them what they thought of Gordon Brown's tax cut package. Every single person stopped pointed out that they were only too aware that it was a short term tax con and that they would be picking up the tab later. It seems that the message put out by Cameron and Osborne has made it through to the general public, and that the only people who will be pleased to see tomorrows PBR will be those not already paying tax. I for one will be cutting back on my spending because I know that next year, or the year after I will be paying for Gordon Brown's incompetence.
The only people who are likely to carry on spending after tomorrows PBR announcement are those who don't have to worry about money, or those idiots who are in massive debt and don't know how to stop spending (sounds a bit like Gordon Brown). I think we can forget any rumours of Brown calling a snap election, it's too late now, the people have finally realised what is going on.
How can anyone believe Brown's solution for paying off the debt he is building up at a massive rate? He says that the increased revenue from an economic recovery (if his plan works) will help defuse his tax bombshell. There are two very large problems with this: One, it is highly likely that people will tighten their belts knowing that they are going to be hit by tax rises in the near future. And two, after eleven years of economic growth - Gordon Brown failed to pay off nation debt - why should our financially dyslexic leopard change his spots now?
Many thanks to The Spine for creating the cat image for me.
We've all seen George Osborne perform in public and he is damn good at it. At a time when the economy is crashing the last thing the government want is a shadow chancellor that makes the real one look like a feeble dimwit. I've watched George give his last two party conference speeches and they were both brilliant. The first one set the party on it's way to the massive poll leads we have seen this year. In the house we have seen Osborne destroy Darling, leaving him a waffling wreck. George has come out with some great policies, popular with the general public, so popular that Labour have had to rubbish them, and then quietly adopt them as their policies a few months down the line.
Gordon Brown - the man who came up with "buy one bar of Gold and get three free" has had the sheer gall to OK a dossier attacking George Osborne's economic competence. The stealth tax King knows shows no shame and is hoping that the public will forget about his pension raid, the 10p tax debacle, soaring national debt, £110billion of PFI debt and £600 billion of public sector pension liabilities. And what does our economic genius of a Prime Minister propose to get us out of the mess he got us into? - Spend more and borrow more.Brown might be on to something here, I'm considering compiling a dossier for the wife complaining about her leaving the toilet seat up and peeing on the floor. Sadly my suitcases would be packed rather more quickly than those of the delusional, mendacious, charlatan who occupies number 10.
What a bloody excellent speech from Shadow Chancellor George Osborne. He outlined perfectly where it all went wrong under Brown and how a Conservative government would set things right. And he managed to pull another great policy out of his hat: a Conservative government would bring in a two year council tax freeze.
Over the next few days of the Conservative conference I will be pointing you towards the many highlights - whether they be press articles, press releases, videos, interviews and last but not least blog posts.
When you have finished there, you might want to click HERE (28min 50secs in) to see David Cameron performing well on the Andrew Marr show this morning. Be warned, Marr does not hide is support for Gordon Brown in this interview.
George Osborne is trying to put the media straight following Gordon Brown's outright lies over his stewardship of the economy. During a magazine interview George was questioned about calling Brown "effing awful" in the Commons chamber, he said:"Well, I was right, wasn't I? He is an effing awful PM. And you should be able to tell the truth in Parliament. "When it comes to political communication, Brown is just so bad at it. And, let's face it, the ability to communicate ideas is a pretty important part of being PM. "He needs to explain what's going on in the world, and he fails, dismally. Do I hate the man? I certainly stand by everything I've said about him."From the Conservative website:
George Osborne has accused Mr. Brown of "living in a fantasy land" after the Prime Minister wrongly claimed the national debt is now lower than the level he inherited. Brown made the claim on Sunday's Andrew Marr show - but according to his own official figures, net debt is higher than on the day he became Chancellor.
George stressed, "Gordon Brown's interview shows he is increasingly becoming a stranger from the political and economic truth." And he added, "The Prime Minister is increasingly living in a fantasy land, where his leadership is only under challenge because of the economic problems, where Britain is well prepared for a downturn, and where he bears no responsibility for the debt boom that he allowed to develop in his ten years as Chancellor."
Why oh why are we losing business to the Irish? The simple answer is - corporation tax. Surely it does not take a financial genius like Gordon Brown (joke) to work out that if companies say they are moving from the UK to Ireland because of "concerns over the [UK] tax environment" that we must follow the Irish lead and cut our corporation tax. Corporation tax in Ireland currently stands at 12.5% - which is less than half of the UK's 28%. The "Celtic Tiger" is thought by many economists to be a result (at least in part) of Ireland's low corporation tax.George Osborne has written to Alistair Darling to urge him to take urgent action to prevent more companies from leaving the UK. Regus, Henderson Group and Charter are all thinking of leaving the UK because of concerns over the tax environment. This follows previous announcements from Shire and United Business Media that they are relocating to Ireland.
George, the Shadow Chancellor, blamed the exodus on the confusion created by Labour's dithering over the business tax regime and the fact that we have some of the highest corporate tax rates in the EU. He called on Darling to adopt our plans to reduce the main rate of corporation tax from 28% to 25% and simply the business tax system: "With companies leaving Britain, weakening an already ailing British economy, I urge you to adopt our proposals in order to restore our competitiveness and help prevent any more companies from deciding to leave the UK."
It's been a sad fact of recent history that the less money you have, the more you have to pay out for your basic utilities. So George Osborne's idea of an energy discount card is just the kind of policy needed to redress the balance between the well off and the not so well off. The card will enable those without a bank account to receive the same discounts as those paying by direct debit. George says this could help four million people save up to £100 a year.
Responding to the announcement that the 2p fuel duty rise will be postponed, Shadow Chancellor George Osborne said:
The government's proposed hike in road tax was claimed by the Prime Minister to be a non revenue raising move. It turns out that this was yet another lie or "Brownie". Treasury minister Angela Eagle admitted that 8.7 million (44%) vehicles, all in the six top-polluting bands - will pay more and that the Exchequer will receive more than £1bn in additional revenue from the scheme by 2011."This destroys the government's defence that this is a green tax and in general gives green taxes a bad name. "We need the prime minister to tell us whether he knew that he was giving parliament the wrong information and was treating the public like fools, or was it the case that he didn't know the truth about the impact of his own Budget on families?"AA President Edmund King said: "This is not a green tax but a mean tax that will hit millions of hard-up families."
Nick Robinson is prophesying the end of the Barnett Formula. Nick believes that Labour Ministers are in flap over the formula because the are worried that George Osborne may propose scrapping it. And that will be a massive vote winner in England."These leaked documents suggest that while Gordon Brown refuses to consider any changes to the Barnett formula, Jack Straw is arguing for change, leaving Alistair Darling, as usual, the weak man in the middle. "The Government's spending policy is being pulled apart by the warring members of the Cabinet."The Barnett Formula gives a subsidy of £1500 to each Scottish citizen. That money comes from the English tax payer and unsurprisingly many (myself included) want to see this outdated formula scrapped. Taxes are high enough under this government without sending a load of what is collected to Scotland.
