The calculating deceit of the Lib Dems
For some of today - when not wondering about the end of the financial world as we know it - I gave a bit of thought to the Lib Dems apparent conversion to tax cuts.
Its going to make our life easier - and move the debate in our direction. Which is good. I don't actually think it will win them any votes as which party do you trust to deliver a smaller state, Conservative or Lib Dem ? ( Anyone answering Lib Dem is beyond help ).
But I hadn't been prepared for the deceit and trickery of Nick Clegg.
I've just listened to Newsnight as Jeremy Paxman tried to get him to explain where his GBP 20 billion tax cut was coming from. ( A hint: It made Charles Kennedy's defence of Lib Dem taxation policy before the 2005 election look lucid. )
But then just a little latter I heard him being interviewed for the Daily Politics and guess what ?
He's not proposing tax cuts at all !!!!! Its just to get headlines. What he's saying is he wants to divert money from Whitehall to the 'peoples priorities' and if any is left over then maybe a little of tax. Given the list of extra spending he mentioned I would expect taxes to have to rise.
They can't be trusted - but then I guess we all knew that.
3 comments:
Clegg's plan to steal the limelight has been crushed by Labour's implosion plus the fact that this plans are looking very shaky under scrutiny.
The Lib Dems must be shaking their heads.
I haven't seen that Newsnight episode. Got a date so I can have a watch if it's still on Iplayer? Since you're opposed to the LDs, I have to see the evidence myself, sorry. As for the Daily Politics interview, I didn't see that either, but then I don't need to. That's exactly what I have heard ALL the time, and I started hearing about this days before this post I think. I have never heard Clegg or any of the LDs claim that they will cut taxes by £20 billion, only that they will divert that spending from things they identify as useless to things they see as useful, and then any left over (which they say is likely) will go towards tax cuts. The whole thing of this being in the news is that historically, the LDs have been for tax rises in some form. Whether we do get tax cuts from that £20 billion, there won't be tax rises overall. Well so they say anyway. Politicians say a lot of things but we don't know if we can trust Nick Clegg, nor David Cameron, nor John McCain, nor Barack Obama. But we know what we're going to get from Gordon Brown.
(cont)
However I have to agree with the comment at the top in part. That their plan to steal the limelight kind of failed. They have had the most horrendous bad luck to have their conference at the same time as all these Labour rebels turning up, and all the unprecedented news surrounding the economy.
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