Apr 03 2007
Gordon Brown and the pensions mess
It is most interesting that at last we are allowed to see something under the Freedom of Information Act. I have always found my way blocked when trying to use it, or Parliamentary Questions, to prize out incriminating evidence like the Treasury advice on pension tax. Following hard on the heels of Lord Turnbull’s?? unflattering description of the Chancellor, we must conclude the establishment has decided Mr Brown would not be a good Prime Minister. They clearly want to wobble him.
Now we see The SNP, the Blairites and the Conservatives all hunting Gordon,?? joined by former civil servants and the CBI: the tables have been turned against the Brown spin machine. Up til a couple of weeks ago, the Brown spin machine kept putting out quite successfully the proposition that he had done a good job running the economy, despite the mounting evidence of problems with pensions and elsewhere.
The counter attack that pension deficits owe much to longer lives and to pension holidays will not wash. Shortly after Gordon Brown’s announcement of the tax on pension and charitable funds I put out the argument that the funds would not only be short of ??5 billion a year, but we could expect a fall of ??100 billion in the capital value of their shares. The market was in those days valued at 20 times earnings, and the government was confiscating ??5 billiion of those earnings. So it proved, when the world Stock market decline came - UK shares fell by more than ??100 billion extra as people discounted the lost income. These losses are in line with current aggregate deficits of pension funds.
The so called pension holidays were mandatory, because the funds were super solvent and tax rules did not permit putting more money into a fund which had a surplus. Lomger lives have been taken care of by higher contributions since the deficits emerged.
John Redwood has been the Member of Parliament for Wokingham since 1987. First attending Kent College, Canterbury, he graduated from Magdalen College...
Please keep up the pressure on Brown, it would be a complete outrage if this malevolent, mendacious self-seeker was to become Prime Minister after all the damage he has caused to members of occupational pension schemes. Can he not be prosecuted for disregarding the professional advice he was given and consequently inflicting massive financial losses on millions who had contributed throughout their working lives to their company schemes?
If you add to this his sale, at a massive loss, of our gold reserves, the incorrect payment of billions of tax credit payments and the enormous stealth tax increases which have been largely wasted, the question should be asked as to how this man is still in government not when he will become Prime Minister.
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Do you recall the old saying the Crown Prince never gets the Crown
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“The so called pension holidays were mandatory, because the funds were super solvent and tax rules did not permit putting more money into a fund which had a surplus.”
In which case Brown’s grab, at the time, did no harm & by putting it to use cutting crporation tax, did a very considerable amount of good. I have written before about how cutting CT was the foundation of the Irish boom. Now I may be riding my hobbyhorse again but it seems clear that CT, by taking money from not only wealth creators but disproportionately from the most successful is the most economicaly damaging of all taxes.
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I have to say John, that I was very disappointed with Ken Clarke on the Today show on Monday. He said (talking about the advice given to Gordon Brown) that “if this was the kind of thing that the act was letting out then perhaps it should be looked at again.” Doesn’t that typify the arrogance of politicians? What about saying “If that is the kind of thing that the act is letting out, then as politcians we must make sure that our advice is good and proper because IT WILL BE SEEN!!”.
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Bill: “I have to say John, that I was very disappointed with Ken Clarke on the Today show on Monday.”
To be disappointed with Ken Clarke, one ought to have expectations that he might occasionally act like a Conservative. He is the BBC’s favourate apologist for Labour, usually wheeled out when the BBC thinks it is necessary to strangle an new born Conservative policy.
Clarke was among the first ‘Conservatives’ to join Blair in his ‘big tent’ after the Tory defeat in ‘97, he has been a consistent supporter of Blair initiatives.
If after fifteen years of observing Kenneth Clarke, I wished to be kind to him, I would say that he may think his ‘cheeky chappie’ persona goes down well with the electorate, presenting the humanitarian face of conservatism. Since I have seen his behaviour, I have no wish to be kind to him. Clarke fits the Left wing steriotype of a Tory, well healed, obese with a touch of noblesse oblige about him, that is probably one reason why the BBC wheel him out at every opportunity.
Give me a straight talking Tebbit or Redwood any day. Unfortunately, Clarke will fit right in with Camerons clique.
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