I'd go a lot further than stop final salary pensions for the statritariat, I'd give them a 10% pay cut and put them on a contributory pension at 65, obviously expediently to save thee conomy, but it needs doing, so why not now? Taxes could really be cut accordingly. They would only be going through what their neighbours in the private sector are going through.

The inequality between those employed in the private sector and those working in the public sector, or those on benefits is going to become a major social & political problem.

Now these Gilts carry a 5 – 10 Percent interest charge, so this little Tax cut is not a cut at all, because we have to pay back in 5 yrs time £100billion PLUS the Interest, which by my reconing is around £120 Billion in five yrs time.

These people must be stopped, our children already owe £1Trillion to the International Moneylenders.

I'd ask you to point this out to gordon but it would be pointless, he either already knows this, or he doesn't, either way, he and anybody who thinks like him needs removing from office.

It's almost as if he is actually working for them rather than the British People.

Close down the ( Private ) Bank of Englland, Stop Borrowing money from the bilderbergers and Lets Print and issue our own money free of charge into the Economy, no loan to pay back, no interest, no national debt and no income tax to pay.

On the debate this afternoon – Brown's glib and facile response to your question was quite abject but at least the question was asked. May I also say that the govt's idea of spinning tax credits as a tax cut won't go down well with the majority of the electorate once the details emerge next week.

To Alan Wheatley @ 4.45pm – "low income" and "in debt" don't equate at all. It used be that no-one liked to be pigeon-holed, ticked and boxed into a corner called 'poverty' yet our current govt has encouraged it; there's no wonder some people would rather take benefits or credits than work. My parents were ordinary, low income people and never owed a penny and I had ten years on a low income bringing up three sons after a divorce yet I never owed a penny. Pride and upbringing has a lot to do with it and that brings us back to parental education and state-schooling.

Thanks to pc-speak there is no longer any shame in being on benefits. Being out of work and seeking employment is one thing but being out of work and living on the effort of others is quite another. It's time Conservatives recognise that pc-speak doesn't cut it and it's time to call a spade a spade and not a shovel.

Whatever happened to the "waste commission" undertaken by David James for Michael Howard. Surely it is time to dust it down. It must be lurking somewhere in Tory HQ!

I watched the conversation with Will Hutton and was impressed by the amount of common ground. I don't suppose the clunking fist was listening though.

Reply: The James proposals were published before the last election. I believe the leadership is now looking again at WASTE AND UNNECESSARY SPENDING.

Reply Will said small because Iceland has banks many times more its GDP

As for those on low income, would it not be the advice of any reputable financial advisor to propose that any spare money should first be spent on reducing debt, especially if the tax cuts are short term? If such action were to be followed does this not undermine the reason for making tax cuts targeted at these people?

I appreciate that I am equating "low income" to "in debt", but it seems this is so often the case.

Alan Wheatley

A good little article in yesterday's MoS was by Dan Atkinson who recommends that:
"The best thing to do with your share of the promised tax cut…is to tuck it away against the moment the Treasury asks for it back again".

It says much when we openly concede that the poorest must be targeted as they are the ones who will actually spend it – sadly on fags, booze and cheap imported toys. Perhaps Dan's advice should be passed on to them.

One other amusing analogy worthy of quoting is that Brown's
"recent behaviour resembles the operator of a dodgy fairground who, having ignored safety warnings for ten years, has seen his jerry-built attraction collapse amid carnage. Far from apologising, he expects to be thanked for helping direct the ambulances"!
QUITE!

Don't amusing but accurate analogies work well in explaining what's happening to the public at large!

Incidentally he also mentions the failed 'Smithson Accord' of December 1971. Are there not a few lessons of history to be drawn? The circumstances seem very similar to now and mention of Heath's dark days may help prick Brown's bubble of current conceit.

On point 4 I agree but in particular would like to see massive cuts (100% would not be much overdoing it) in the H&E Executive & other regulatory bodies. They are what are responsible for public works costing 13 times, in real terms, what they used to – getting rid of this burden &/or building nuclear reactors would each provide a stimulus to match any tax cuts while actually having a negative fiscal cost.

Reply: I do support Corporation Tax cuts to stop the drain of business away from the UK

Square that circle and we are on a winner.

But you cannot. Governments allocate capital on predominantly politically opportunist whim. This always destroys capital. Hence the best answer is for the government not to spend any money at all, or as littles as humanly possible.

So cut taxes and spending.