Blog 2023 Malcolm Blair-Robinson

David Cameron

It was a good Leader’s speech. The Conference liked it. The media liked it. There was a theme of hope and a warning of cuts. This is the point perhaps. Any speech made before the Spending Review is announced in a fortnight is doing no more than marking time. That will change the political climate. Until then there is an air of expectation or even foreboding.

I did not agree with his assessment of the Afghan war and I profoundly disagree with the outburst over the Lockerbie bomber, not least because it is probably the wrong man and certainly not the one, or many, responsible for giving the order and devising the plan. Poor judgement that. Like the wobble over married tax allowance. To extend to higher rate taxpayers would cost £1.5 billion against the saving on child allowance of £I billion. By the end of the month the Downing Street act, which has been something of a casualty of this conference, will have to sharpen up. It would be a mistake to underestimate Ed.  Brother David will explain.

Mortgage Lending

The Council Of Mortgage Lenders has predicted that nearly half the mortgages granted and completed over the last four years, would not have been granted if the FSA’s new and tougher lending criteria had then been in effect.

That tells you all you want to know about the origins of the financial crisis, the property bubble and almost everything else besides including the busted and rescued banks. These new proposals must not be watered down. They are the foundation upon which a viable economy based on sound numbers will eventually be built and built to last.

Tax Breaks

The Tories are sliding around all over their banana skin and it is now dominating the conference. A combination of Fox and Cameron should  help to move the media forward. Politically this is a shrewder move than the hoo ha suggests. Labour is forced into the awkward position of defending the better off, whilst everyone knows that it is fairer to ask those with more to accept some pain to help those with less. Unfortunately there has been such a worship of acquisitiveness and a nodding through of selfishness, coupled with the idea that if you work hard you are licenced to trample the vulnerable, that this message is hard to get through. This is all New Labour’s fault.

This blog is politically neutral, but it does attack each of the political parties in turn if it sees the need. With New Labour it is particularly virulent and especially now that the concept is dead. It must be one of the most cynical, unprincipled and self serving political movements ever to gain power in this country. Set against a few successes such as devolution and Northern Ireland is the longest  line of lies, wars and administrative cock ups ever assembled in  these islands.

Money was spent as if it came from a well. Programmes were signed for without the cash to pay. A modern state was inaugurated to spend 33% more than it earned. Absolute chaos reigned in almost every area of procurement, especially computer programmes. It is in this gluttony for massive government and a never ending tide of meddling legislation, that the seed of the current Tory banana, on whose skin Osborne and Cameron have slid, is sown.

It is clear to all with common sense that the sensible cut off for child benefit is £50,000 per anum income, per family, whether single, joint, married or a partnership. It actually has nothing to do with tax rates. Unfortunately, although we know how much everybody in the country does or does not earn, we know the age of every child and adult and we know where everybody lives, we know these things in separate corners of the vast bureaucratic empire, but there is no communication open between them. This is down to new Labour. It was on its watch that all this should have been sorted. Ed will need to tread with political care in the short run. In the long run he needs to see that New Labour and its record are buried. Buried very deep.

Meanwhile the Tories need to re-group and press on. The Coalition needs now to be very bold and radical. Universal benefits available to all, but paid only according to need. There is absolutely no moral justification, neither is the money available, to pay those on fat pensions the winter fuel allowance, the free bus pass and the state  pension. If they fall by the wayside and are engulfed by hard times yes, but while their sun is shining no. The welfare state must become a universal safety net, not something for everyone to plunder. Its greatest value and purpose is to support the majority who do the jobs which pay less but without which civilised society implodes into a science fiction nightmare.