If the sentiments found on the Conservative Home website are anything to go by, the wider public are set to be disappointed.
Ahead of one of the most anticipated events in British political history, many will be searching tonight during the leaders debate for an answer to one of the big defining questions surrounding David Cameron’s party – has he really changed the Conservatives, and are they now genuinely committed to placing the greater interest of the country ahead all other instincts?
If the sentiments found on the Conservative Home website are anything to go by, the wider public are set to be disappointed.
After the events of the parliamentary ‘wash-up’ last week, where we witnessed the Conservative Party block targeted tax rises geared towards future investment and deficit reduction, the powerful rank and file voice of the party expressed not only their wet appetite for the abolition of the 50% tax rate on earnings above £150,000, but their belief it may come to fruition half way through a first-term Tory government.
This is a startling insight into the party for two reasons:
Firstly, the Conservatives have committed themselves to reducing the deficit faster and deeper than Labour, which, if they plausibly could, the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr) has stated would be a national record for the country. However, even if this was a sincere pledge they sought to meet, none of the headline tax policies in their manifesto will go any way to tackling it.
The partial reversal of Labour’s NI increase will be funded by the most extraordinary public sector efficiency measures ever put forward by a party. Their controversial married couple’s tax allowance will be paid for by a levy on banks and apparently even more efficiency savings. These opportunistic tax giveaways damage any credibility they may have had on cutting the public sector deficit. The apparent expectation of the abolition of the 50% tax rate merely reinforces this.
Significantly, the musings on Conservative Home also demonstrate the tax-cutting glee and passion still breeding healthily within the Conservative Party. Why this is, and should be an issue, is that it represents their commitment to placing vested interests ahead of national ones. Whoever wins the election will have to embark on one of the greatest deficit reduction plans ever mounted in this country. Everyone will have to share and feel some pain. Labour have made a pledge that the poorest and most disadvantaged will be affected the least, if at all.
Not only are rank and file troops in Cameron’s army salivating at the prospect of tax cuts for the richest, they’re actually getting them. The cut in inheritance tax for millionaires made by George Osborne in 2007, shockingly still stands to this day.
Single parents and individuals who have suffered traumatic relationships will be penalised for their plight. And the country as a whole will suffer from the incredulous deficit reduction plans of the Conservatives should they get elected.
The only ones who appear to benefit relatively well from a future Tory government, are the richest, and most privileged in society; witness Cameron’s desire to abolish the fox hunting ban. Yes, the Tories are back in town, but sadly for the British people, it is not what they were expecting.
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