What will the Tories announce this week in Manchester?
After the shables of the Labour Party Conference, and the even more confusing Liberal Democrat one, we are about to see the start of the Tory conference, which is away from the distractions of the seaside, in Manchester.
This will be crucial to the next election, mooted to be on May 6th (oh that Gordon Brown would call it sooner, so that we can get this painful period over with). I would warn the Tories not to follow Labour’s lead and court popularity with policies that will never happen, cannot be afforded and are just jumping on the latest crisis that the country has lurched into.
There is a policy which has hit the news today about giving free accommodation to pensioners after the age of 65, for an initial papyment of £8,000. Not sure on the details, but already Labour are saying it is not affordable.
There are talks of reversing the 50% tax band for higher earners, and taking it back to 40%. This would make sense, as surely the way for the economy to grow is for people to have available money to spend on products and services, which would ultimately create profitability and tax revenues from VAT and corporation tax. High tax rates , I feel , tend to stifle competition and growth.
There are difficult times ahead for any future government, and I do not believe the Labour myth that the Tories are only interested in “cuts” for cuts sake, and are only interested in reducing inheritance tax.
I hope that clarity will appear and further serve to end the Labour of lax control on spending and false growth. Labour inherited a sound economy in 1997, but have thrown billions down the drain, including selling off the gold reserves at their lowest price.
Watch this space
