Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Consevative thinking?
The Telegraph reports here on "Conservatives ... "unambiguous commitment" to more spending on public services".
It all follows on from some report or other they've had done, quoting from it: (from the article): "... we believe that all Conservatives should embrace an unambiguous commitment to the growth of public services, as part of a growth of general well-being." Let me state unambiguously I reject this statement and all that follows from it; I believe that general well being would be improved by reducing public services. In any event, that is irrelevant, as I shall explain.
Amongst the electorate, quite a large number of those in work, doing ordinary jobs, are starting to feel the pinch of Brown's taxes. Coupled with this, they know there hasn't been any improvement in public services and they are simply costing us more money.
Only last week, without any effort on my part, I found large amounts of money that could be saved without any impact on public services. If I (an individual with no resources) can do this, then it must be so much easier for the Conservative Party. Additionally my view is that they will find an electorate responsive to the idea of cutting both public spending and taxes; especially if the case is made that cutting the taxes will come from money that is wasted elsewhere.
In other words, the conditions are ideal to make a tax cutting electoral pledge, and win the argument, because, crucially it can be truly said that tax cuts can occur without cutting public services.
Clearly this isn't the position that Cameron is going to take, and it's up to him, but don't think many conservative voters will vote for a party that's spouting statist rubbish and he's in danger of keeping conservative voters away from the polls, like 1997 all over again. He's also risking alienating all those ordinary people who are bearing this higher tax burden (not income tax, but all the other insiduous taxes we have to pay often without realising it). We want to hear about lower taxes, not an expanded public sector; the only votes he can be even attempting to court with this nonsense are those of people who work in the public sector; this is a pointless excercise as some will vote Conservative anyway, the only ones this will appeal to are those who work in the public sector, but don't do much, however these are unlikely to switch to Cameron just because of a few platitudes.
It seems a strange set of strategy and tactics that Cameron's pursuing, really he wants to be putting forward some sensible arguments and making the case for conservative policies; especially as (in my view) the nation is about ready for them.
It all follows on from some report or other they've had done, quoting from it: (from the article): "... we believe that all Conservatives should embrace an unambiguous commitment to the growth of public services, as part of a growth of general well-being." Let me state unambiguously I reject this statement and all that follows from it; I believe that general well being would be improved by reducing public services. In any event, that is irrelevant, as I shall explain.
Amongst the electorate, quite a large number of those in work, doing ordinary jobs, are starting to feel the pinch of Brown's taxes. Coupled with this, they know there hasn't been any improvement in public services and they are simply costing us more money.
Only last week, without any effort on my part, I found large amounts of money that could be saved without any impact on public services. If I (an individual with no resources) can do this, then it must be so much easier for the Conservative Party. Additionally my view is that they will find an electorate responsive to the idea of cutting both public spending and taxes; especially if the case is made that cutting the taxes will come from money that is wasted elsewhere.
In other words, the conditions are ideal to make a tax cutting electoral pledge, and win the argument, because, crucially it can be truly said that tax cuts can occur without cutting public services.
Clearly this isn't the position that Cameron is going to take, and it's up to him, but don't think many conservative voters will vote for a party that's spouting statist rubbish and he's in danger of keeping conservative voters away from the polls, like 1997 all over again. He's also risking alienating all those ordinary people who are bearing this higher tax burden (not income tax, but all the other insiduous taxes we have to pay often without realising it). We want to hear about lower taxes, not an expanded public sector; the only votes he can be even attempting to court with this nonsense are those of people who work in the public sector; this is a pointless excercise as some will vote Conservative anyway, the only ones this will appeal to are those who work in the public sector, but don't do much, however these are unlikely to switch to Cameron just because of a few platitudes.
It seems a strange set of strategy and tactics that Cameron's pursuing, really he wants to be putting forward some sensible arguments and making the case for conservative policies; especially as (in my view) the nation is about ready for them.
Tags: Conservatives, taxes, public sector
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.
