David Cameron’s week-end message –
“Britain is in serious economic trouble. Not only have we just had the longest and deepest recession on record, but our recovery is one of the weakest in the developed world.
This has all happened on Gordon Brown’s watch. But now the man who promised “no more boom and bust” says he’s got us through the worst of the storm, and all we need is his hand on the tiller to steer us through the choppy waters.
That is 100% wrong. He didn’t steer us safely through the storm – he made it worse for us, by spending and borrowing so much.
So, we’ve had enough of Gordon Brown’s hand on the tiller. We need to change course – as I explain in this week’s video message.
We need to act now to show the world we’re serious about paying back our debts. We need to get more for less with government spending – just as families across the country are having to get more out of their money. And we need to make Britain the best place in the world to do business.
That’s the big choice on our economy today. Five more years of Gordon Brown – or change with the Conservatives with the energy, leadership and values to get Britain moving again.”
March 15, 2010
yes your right I've no doubt, but for some reason the politicians we have to day look like wets, hardly able to instill any real faith.
I think Brown is about the worse leader any party has ever had and thats saying something, but sadly Cameron and Clegg look little better, hence the polls are collapsing.
I never seen anything like it in my life I've not bothered to register to vote for the first time in my life, I cannot be bothered because in the end whom ever wins i will be worse off.
March 15, 2010
Robert you are so right and so wrong
So right in that there are no strong signs that DC will be able to do what needs to be done
So wrong because DC needs every single vote to give him the powerful mandate which will be essential for him to complete his difficult task.
Look back at the days of T Blair…he simply took any good, sensilble policy from the Tories and claimed it for his own. So we can hope and pray that DC is avoiding this risk by keeping his powder dry and that, once it is too late for Nulabour to change horses, he can set out his stall for the nation to judge
March 16, 2010
I don't agree with a number of David Cameron's stated policies but of the three I feel he shows far more leadership andwith his team a willingness to tackle the UK debt and deficit meanigfully and quickly. I agree with Michael and also hope a lot of powder is being kept dry.
Brown is not a leader at all, he is simply a manager of the worst kind not least in shirking responsibility and blaming others for his mistakes while taking the credit for their achievements. I haven't paid any attention to Clegg to have any opinion.
Every vote counts and I urge you to vote to help change the situation.
March 15, 2010
Have faiths Robert – register to vote and vote Tory. Remember that Cameron is hamstrung in what he can say by the media and the agenda spinning Labour party.
You never know – you might be pleasantly surprised.
March 15, 2010
Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, the parsnips remain unbuttered.
March 15, 2010
On television the other night, Liam Byrne said how Labour would halve the deficit, by which he meant reducing it by £82 billion per annum during the next parliament. He split it into £19 billion of tax increases (already announced), £25 billion in increased tax receipts due to economic growth and £38 billion in public expenditure cuts. He said the figures were all in the pre-budget report.
So I looked at the pre-budget report and the public finance projections are in Annex B. The first thing to note is that Mr Byrne's numbers are in terms of nominal (current) prices rather than constant 2009/10 prices, which is confusing because there are three different measures of inflation quoted – CPI, RPI and GDP deflator. My checks indicated a £43 billion increases in tax receipts (growth plus increased tax rates) and a £40 billion decrease in public expenditure, both by FYR 2013/4, very close to Mr Byrne's figures. So far so good.
The second point to note is that the GDP growth assumptions are high – over 2% in FYR 2010/11, and 3.25% in each subsequent financial year.
So I redid the figures in terms of constant 2009/10 prices – using the GDP deflator as the inflation index and more realistic GDP growth – 1% in FYR 2010/11 and 2.1% in each subsequent financial year (the long term average annual GDP growth since 1979).
On this basis, Labour's planned tax receipts are £65 billion above the growth trend line, and their planned public expenditure is only £6 billion below trend line. This suggests very strongly that:
(1) Labour will not reduce the annual deficit fast enough – on their figures, the total debt will have reached 80% to 90% of GDP by 2013/14.
(2) Using reasonable assumptions about future GDP growth, they will use a mixture of tax increases and capital expenditure cuts as their principal weapons, using the public sector gravy train untouched.
You have been warned! This is what we have to get over to the electorate.
March 15, 2010
Brilliant analysis.
March 15, 2010
A nice message from Mr Cameron. I know we shouldn't encourage negative politics but I'm looking forward to the attack dogs being unleashed on Gordon Brown's record in the run up to the election. The Panglossian attitude of Labour (and, apparently, the Lib Dems going by this weekends conference) to the economy must be exposed for what it is.
Labour love their league tables and statistics. What I'd like to see are a series of league tables comparing the UK with other G20 nations since Gordon Brown became PM. One comparing change in GDP, another unemployment rate, debt as a % of GDP, etc. I would be very surprised if the UK wasn't in the relegaton zone in every league table.
March 15, 2010
I shall not be voting New Labour, sadly I've spent a long long time in the Labour party. But I'm not that far gone to know when a party is trying to stuff the membership.
For me the only reason I would vote Tory I'm severely disabled and Labour has stated it would attack my benefits, and no I do not have depression or mental health problems, I'm paraplegia from a serious accident. Labour have stated they would remove my Disability living allowance at sixty five, the Tories have said they would not. Thats enough for me to vote Tory, but the fact is the Tories do worry me with the massive cuts and lets be honest you have scared the public as well. One thing to say we will repay the debt it's another warning people it's going to be hard.
March 15, 2010
Robert, would you rather cut back on spending voluntarily on your own credit card or wait until the Credit Card Company just stops you, in one day, spending anything at all and declares you bankrupt? I think that is the thing you have to decide when you decide whether to carry on with Labour or not.
March 15, 2010
It is the absolute responsibility of all of us to see that our neighbours are looked after safely. Nobody in your situation should have any doubt that that is a given. The key difference between righty people and New Labour is that we quietly and properly accept this responsibility, but we do not make political capital out of your misfortune. This is the disgrace of leftyism. They make a virtue out of victimhood and try to 'blame' every misfortune on their politcal opponents. It is a grand deceit.
By implementing policies that encourage wealth creation, or rather more importantly not implementing policies that actively discourage it, righties will always ensure that sufficient surplus wealth is created to provide the most generous benefits necessary to support those who, through no fault of their own, get handed the fuzzy end of the lollipop of life. The fact is that Tory governments, or more precisely governments that favour liberty and the small state and trust their constituents most, always produce better outcomes for the poor and infirm than lefty goverments that always destroy wealth, trust no-one but their own apparatchiks and always trend towards totalitarianism. One day the poor and the infirm will realise just how thoroughly they have been shafted by lefties and used by them as unwitting pawns in the pursuit of naked power, and they will ask for repayment in blood. Be very clear that Brown and his henchpeople are genuinely scared of you, and so they should be.
I have never yet met a lefty who had genuine sympathy, without being patronising, for anyone with a difficulty and who at the same time did not use that persons situation for their own political ends or as some spurious 'evidence' of the cruelty of capitalism. Capitalism is not cruel. It is entirely unemotional. It is an opportunity system. The people that enjoy capitalism are human and have empathy and are very capable of the most selfless acts of charity, without any prompting from the State or coercion.
I have had quite a few health issues that have hampered my life chances (I could have been a contender!) but I would never ever consider casting my vote anywhere near a lefty because I know that we will all be poorer as a result and that the medical care and medicines that I use will become more scarce and their development fatally slowed by the intervention of the Statist bureaucracies implicit in socialism, which is merely a rationing system and under which the party apparatchiks are never rationed. Capitalism, which by the way does not exist as an ism, is just people doing stuff, is the fairest bestest system yet devised for getting you safe. If that's still not enough to make you love the Tories still vote Conservative, not because you love them, but because they are the least worst option.
March 15, 2010
I think DC needs to state often:
"The current deficit is not the result of stimulous spending. We've had little stimulous spending in the UK. It is the result of over a decade of waste and unbalanced budgets."
Gordon Brown is pretending that the deficit is just a sacrifice to keep people in jobs and to pull the economy around. Like much of what he tells people: its a blatant lie.
March 15, 2010
Mr Redwood, who will be the new hand on the economic tiller? Mr Osborne does not have my confidence.
If the Conservative Party stands for anything then it stands for meritocracy and ability. So why does Mr Cameron not have you as Shadow Chancellor? If he does I'll vote for him.
The article by James Forsyth in The Spectator of 27 Feb. came as no surprise.
March 15, 2010
JR
A Tory voter all my life, I am 70 now, I have voted for your party all my life in the belief that those who got us in this thing would be the best option to get us out.
I don't care about the NHS, council tax, benefits and so on. This countries membership of the EU is my one and only concern and no one is listening.
In May I intend to abstain.
March 15, 2010
Don't waste your vote – lend it to UKIP?
A good result for UKIP and the Tories might get the message, otherwise they'll think the EU-sceptics are just a small minority which can be ignored.
Reply: The fact that UKIP have never won a Westminster seat and are unlikely to is constantly damaging to the Eurosceptic position. It is time for the Eurosceptic vote to unite behind Conservative Eurosceptics who can win.
March 15, 2010
And a good result for UKIP is what exactly? Give a handful of seats to the Europhile LibDems or Labour, with the likely result that in 5 years time we'll have no domestic powers at all and be in the Euro, as similar basket cases to Greece and Spain. Boy that'll really show the Tories won't it ?
I will repeat, everybody should vote UKIP in the Euro Elections where you can make a difference, and believe me a Tory government would certainly sit up and take notice if we all did that.
March 15, 2010
With the scandalous practices revealed last year this could be the election where people finally turn their backs on the three main parties who have monopolised westminster for far too long.
Their sense of entitlement is just astonishing.
March 15, 2010
No. A good result for UKIP might well be to show the CamSamGlam side of the Tory party that the 10% they lost to achieve a no overall majority would be recoverable in a second election if they muttered the R word.
March 16, 2010
emil: “with the likely result that in 5 years time we’ll have no domestic powers at all and be in the Euro ..”
Where do you get the idea that the Westminster ‘parliament’ has any role other than implementing instructions from Brussels on anything other than the most trivial issues?
Immigration – a EU competence
Industrial strategy – an EU competence by virtue of the BIS formerly the DTI.
Agricultural strategy – an EU competence by virtue of DEFRA.
Foreign relations – an EU competence by virtue of our new EU High representative.
What is left to the Westminister Parliament TODAY?
JR: “as I explain in this week’s video message.”
How does one access the video message?
That is David Cameron’s and can be accessed through the conservative site.
March 15, 2010
An abstention is a cop out. If you love Liberty you must decide where your vote goes. Our ancestors – including the roots of the current New Labour deceit – died to get you that vote. So use it and use it well.
I have come to the conclusion that this election is more about Liberty than any election I can recall – I am 58. Even in the days of the Cold War most people, lefties and righties alike, saw no future in the cruel drab depressing deceitful totalitarian regimes to the East and knew that whichever way they voted at least we would not end up in some ghastly Gulag like State with universal bureaucracies based on massive filing sytems recording all our lives, supervising our every move, keeping us enslaved for whatever use the state felt was necesary to ensure its continuation and by doling our meagre amounts of money through various non-jobs and rationing systems. And yet after 13 years of New labour we are nearer than ever to that awful prospect with massive State controlled databases, ID Cards, cameras everywhere, the police debased into some Orwellian Department of Citizen Control and a massive universal benefits ‘system’ keeping us enslaved.
Choose to vote for Liberty. A vote for New Labour is a vote for enslavement.
March 17, 2010
Membership of the European is an enslavement that we are unable to do anything about?
Not voting is the only option of disapproval and it is one that Parliament concerned about. I will abstain!
March 17, 2010
If it's the Tories record on the EU that troubles you, have a look at UKIP's policies and then tell me what's to disagree with
Not voting is a vote for no change.
Please think about the people who laid down their lives to give you a chance to select and deselect your government and make use of it.
We may not get overnight results but "…the long march began with a single step…"
Please reconsider.
March 17, 2010
That is still a cop out. There is at least one other party that wants out of Europe, and Mr R seesm to want to renogiate our membership.
Abstention is a waste if a vote.
Imagine the situation a hundred and fifty years ago ish where you would not have had the vote at all. Don't let down those people who fought so hard to get you that vote.
March 15, 2010
If you have organised this much debt, yes getting out of it will be hard. But delaying it just makes it much harder. And let's face it, the problem is down to one man, Brown, although he was helped by the weak, spineless opposition.
March 15, 2010
There was a time when debtors were sent to prison yet now Gordon is trying to tell everyone that debt, massive debt is a good thing. We need to attack him on this at every opportunity. To promote debt is not a sensible fiscal policy.
March 16, 2010
I have no debts, how can you have debts on £89 a week in benefits.
I think people have to get use to a new world in which the poorest will end up paying for new labour spend spend spend.
Not me sorry new labour is dead and gone…
March 17, 2010
The Referendum Party got almost a million votes in 1997 and no one took any notice. A big disappointment to me because I worked hard for them, but voted for my local MP who was onside and who they did not put up against.
I met Conservative party workers, they came to our meetings but and I don't blame them intended voting Tory. The only way to kick Dave's but is to abstain and that is what I intend to do. Period.