Monday 15 October 2012

Whom to tax?

In a Tale of Two Conferences there seems to be a desparity of thinking between the two Coalition parties.

George Osborne has proposed saving another £16bn from the budget by 2016/7 harvesting from the Welfare system in savings rather than rising taxes.

Vince Cable and the Libdem conference voted in favour of Mansion taxes to hit homes valued over £2m as rich internationals can hide their money abroad but they can't move their houses.

Which one is more in line with the public view of things?

Fair enough the Conservatives are not talking about rising taxes BUT if you are cutting benefits and people's income then they will still end up at the same destination - less money in their already depleted pockets.

One of the brave strategems is the cutting of housing benefits for the under 24s making people stay at home and save up for a deposit rather than just finishing school and demanding a house. In a way it sounds very good but at the other end of the scale - if you can't get a job, you become a drain on your parents pocket.

Although there is a feeling of entitlement that has swept through this nation - The state HAS to do this for me etc, that should be overcome, there are also lots of genuine cases of welfare. It is easy to weild the axe and say that people don't need this and that but it should be weilded with campassion and thought like a surgeon with a scalpal not a drunk headsman.

So who is going to stand up for the working family?

Ed Miliband? He couldn't stand up if his seat was on fire.

Nope, our hope lies in the hands of the Right Honorable Nick Clegg MP who is frankly a little confused and angry by the Chancellor's announcement.

According to his Radio 4 interview the other day the Deputy Prime Minister says he hadn't agreed to the Housing allowance change - a fact backed up by Simon Hughes on BBC's Question time who when asked about it said; We don't agree with it and we'd scrap such a move.

Nick went on to say;

The idea that of the £16bn we're going to scoop out £10bn from welfare - which will inevitably hit the poorest before asking anything of the wealthiest -no. Flatly, no.

I start from a very simple principle that when we're all having to make sacrifices... you ask people at the top and then work down. You don't ask people at the bottem and work up.

I think it's unrealistic to assume that you can't make any more savings from welfare... but it hasn't been agreed in Government.

I certainly don't agree with the idea that you just pluck a £10bn figure out of the sky and say 'that's what we're going to do' without asking how you can do that more fairly
.


These will be welcome words for many people in the same boat (and indeed the many who are worse off than I) as my family across the nation, many living in Medway and other urban areas.

It seems that the Conservative element want to wring blood from a stone and countless administrations have tried it before and run up against a brick wall. As the Wealth gap appears to grow more and more distant with each passing year can it not be said; Enough is enough?

I understand that it isn't fair that the "Sucessful" are stung more than the "Unsucessful" but the simple fact is that people are at the end of their bank balances and unable to support themselves or their families and the rich well...

It seems to me that for the "Duration of the economic emergency" we should look to the Haves rather than the Have nots for more money and why a Mansion tax has been ignored is beyond me.

In the spirit of World War One, whose centenary is up coming they should ask; Not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country and if we're truly in this together Dave and George... why do the many who have less have to suffer more than the less who have more?

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