Comments on: The PM is annoyed with the media - he should try sorting out the problems http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/19/the-pm-is-annoyed-with-the-media-he-should-try-sorting-out-the-problems/ Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Wokingham Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:45:24 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: mikestallard http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/19/the-pm-is-annoyed-with-the-media-he-should-try-sorting-out-the-problems/#comment-19349 mikestallard Sat, 19 Apr 2008 19:40:19 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/19/the-pm-is-annoyed-with-the-media-he-should-try-sorting-out-the-problems/#comment-19349 It's a bit like stopping smoking really. We all know how to do it - don't light up, don't buy ciggies, don't stand around outside bumming fags off other people. The problem is that many people do not want to stop smoking. Gordon Brown likes to buy votes with hand outs. He also likes to waste a lot of money on bailing out failing banks. He has a growing bureaucracy and its quangos to feed. So he borrows money. We all know (see last post) what OUGHT to be done. But will he want to do it? I am getting worried myself. If I behaved like he does, I should by now be bankrupt. I do not see the taxation system bailing him out. Neither do I see the international community bankrolling him for ever. Is it too much to see the whole government going bust? This has happened in history to the most unlikely people: Philip II of Spain, the British Empire in 1945, France under the ancien regime. Reply: Yes, governments can go bust. Whilst this government is borrowing far too much, the poor British taxpayers are still able to pay the interest. We are not about to go bust - merely to see all of us paying more and more tax for less and less result. £75 billion on the mortgage market so far - that's serious money. It’s a bit like stopping smoking really. We all know how to do it - don’t light up, don’t buy ciggies, don’t stand around outside bumming fags off other people. The problem is that many people do not want to stop smoking.
Gordon Brown likes to buy votes with hand outs. He also likes to waste a lot of money on bailing out failing banks. He has a growing bureaucracy and its quangos to feed. So he borrows money. We all know (see last post) what OUGHT to be done. But will he want to do it?
I am getting worried myself. If I behaved like he does, I should by now be bankrupt. I do not see the taxation system bailing him out. Neither do I see the international community bankrolling him for ever. Is it too much to see the whole government going bust? This has happened in history to the most unlikely people: Philip II of Spain, the British Empire in 1945, France under the ancien regime.

Reply: Yes, governments can go bust. Whilst this government is borrowing far too much, the poor British taxpayers are still able to pay the interest. We are not about to go bust - merely to see all of us paying more and more tax for less and less result. £75 billion on the mortgage market so far - that’s serious money.

]]> By: Matthew Reynolds http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/19/the-pm-is-annoyed-with-the-media-he-should-try-sorting-out-the-problems/#comment-19337 Matthew Reynolds Sat, 19 Apr 2008 12:21:41 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/19/the-pm-is-annoyed-with-the-media-he-should-try-sorting-out-the-problems/#comment-19337 Dear oh dear ! Why not just sweep away tax credits & age related tax allowances and replace Job Seekers Allowance & Incapacity Benefit designed to slash economic inactivity and phase out the majority of QUANGO's ? All the money produced by those measures could fund raising the basic personal allowance to £10,000 p/a , the winter fuel alowance to £700 p/a for all pensioner households while exempting the over 65's from the first £1,000 p/a of their Council Tax while raising Child Benefit to £30 a week for the first two children and to £25 for each other child ? That would make tax & benefits a bit simpler while making government smaller and helping people by more than just restoring the 10p band as that would complicate things a bit at a time when Lord Forsyth points out that taxes need simplifying . But as a sop to those who want a 10p band it could be restored for one year only on the first £2,400 p/a of taxable income in 2009-10 - funded by some of the money raised by following the £20 billion privatisation plan as suggested by the Adam Smith Institute . If economic conditions will be worse next year then putting money in everyones pocket in a way that favours the poorest will give the economy a boost when most needed ( poorer people are more likely to spend extra cash ). Then as the higher basic personal allowances & fuel allowance , extra child benefit and OAP's council tax cut started to kick in the 10p band could again vanish in 2010-11 thus simplifying taxation without hurting the least well off or indeed anyone else . My plan would boost household budgets & reduce poverty rates at a time when the first is under strain and the other to high. This anti- poverty - pro- growth agenda could be phased in over five or six years as and when savings from QUANGO cuts & welfare changes where secured . Moving money from the bloated state sector to the wealth creating private sector would as in Eire help undo the damage done by Labour that is so evident for all to see. Dear oh dear ! Why not just sweep away tax credits & age related tax allowances and replace Job Seekers Allowance & Incapacity Benefit designed to slash economic inactivity and phase out the majority of QUANGO’s ? All the money produced by those measures could fund raising the basic personal allowance to £10,000 p/a , the winter fuel alowance to £700 p/a for all pensioner households while exempting the over 65’s from the first £1,000 p/a of their Council Tax while raising Child Benefit to £30 a week for the first two children and to £25 for each other child ? That would make tax & benefits a bit simpler while making government smaller and helping people by more than just restoring the 10p band as that would complicate things a bit at a time when Lord Forsyth points out that taxes need simplifying . But as a sop to those who want a 10p band it could be restored for one year only on the first £2,400 p/a of taxable income in 2009-10 - funded by some of the money raised by following the £20 billion privatisation plan as suggested by the Adam Smith Institute . If economic conditions will be worse next year then putting money in everyones pocket in a way that favours the poorest will give the economy a boost when most needed ( poorer people are more likely to spend extra cash ). Then as the higher basic personal allowances & fuel allowance , extra child benefit and OAP’s council tax cut started to kick in the 10p band could again vanish in 2010-11 thus simplifying taxation without hurting the least well off or indeed anyone else . My plan would boost household budgets & reduce poverty rates at a time when the first is under strain and the other to high. This anti- poverty - pro- growth agenda could be phased in over five or six years as and when savings from QUANGO cuts & welfare changes where secured . Moving money from the bloated state sector to the wealth creating private sector would as in Eire help undo the damage done by Labour that is so evident for all to see.

]]> By: tim holden http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/19/the-pm-is-annoyed-with-the-media-he-should-try-sorting-out-the-problems/#comment-19323 tim holden Sat, 19 Apr 2008 09:36:05 +0000 http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2008/04/19/the-pm-is-annoyed-with-the-media-he-should-try-sorting-out-the-problems/#comment-19323 The PM wants to be loved. Anything that leads to not being loved infuriates him. This, together with a number of other more than valid reasons, is why he is not loved. The most dangerous time is when the unloved abandon hope of being loved. The PM wants to be loved. Anything that leads to not being loved infuriates him. This, together with a number of other more than valid reasons, is why he is not loved.
The most dangerous time is when the unloved abandon hope of being loved.

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