Help us expose Labour's 2010 Budget for what it is!

Even by Alistair Darling's standards this was a Budget that was instantly forgettable.

We now know that Labour have no new ideas, no energy and no plans to get the economy moving.

There was nothing in this Budget except political positioning. No credible plan to deal with the debt. No serious plan to boost growth. All the spending decisions have been put off until after the election, and all the big tax rises concealed in the small print.

The only new policies were ones stolen from the Conservatives - like the stamp duty cut and new university places. It was the day Labour were found out.

It's clear that only the Conservatives have the energy, leadership and ideas to Get Britain Working.

George Osborne has published the entire Budget online, in an open and interactive format. So if you want to help pick apart Gordon Brown's deceptions - take a look at the documents and post us your comments (http://www.yourbudgetresponse.co.uk/).

If you spot a dodgy figure, come across a hidden tax rise or see anything else that you think might be helpful, just let us know. With your help, we can expose more of Labour's deceptions - and ensure this empty Budget is Labour's last Budget for a long time.

2010 - A Year For Change

A Happy New Year to you and all your family!

After a year and a decade of disaster for our country, 2010 is a year of hope and opportunity for us all because this year the people of East Renfrewshire and the UK will get their chance to elect a government with a vision for the future.

For me this means we need change, real change and the sort of change only David Cameron and the Conservatives as offering.

Why so? Well not because Labour, in the form of Tony Blair, boast the first Prime Minister in British political history to have misled parliament into sending our troops to war, nor is it simply because East Renfrewshire has suffered greatly under Labour rule for nearly 15 years. It is because Labour are led by Gordon Brown who led us into the economic recession that is hitting East Renfrewshire so hard.

Want proof? Well here are just 10 financial mistakes made on Gordon's watch, all of which helped the UK achieve the unenviable distinction of being the first major economy into and the last major economy out of recession - hardly making us the "best placed" major economy in the world as Gordon Brown would have had you believe:

1. Ruining Our Pension Funds by Abolishing Taxing Dividend Payments

Before 1997, dividends issued by UK companies and paid to pension funds were tax-free - that is, the tax could be claimed back via a system of tax credits.

Immediately after Labour's election in 1997 Gordon Brown decided this system would be abolished. Tax relief was scrapped, reducing the amount collected by pension funds by around £5 billion a year.

Pension funds holding the cash that you, me and almost everyone else in the country making provision for old age plan to use for our retirement have lost around £100 billion over the last 12 years. One big stealth tax that decimated a UK pensions industry that was once considered to be the best in the world.

2. Selling "OUR" Gold

In May 1999 Gordon Brown planned to sell some gold. There were two problems with this, which concerned his advisers. The price of gold had slumped after a decade of stagnation, but was likely to increase in the proceeding years. Added to this, the announcement of a major sell-off would drive the price down further. Not that this deterred the Chancellor. Experts believe that the poorly timed decision to flog our national treasure has cost us all around £3 billion.

3. Establishing Inadequate Regulation

The system of financial regulation dividing powers between the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority, established by Gordon Brown as Chancellor in 2000, missed what amounted to the biggest financial crisis of our lifetime.

Today most sensible and respected commentators conclude that the system set up by Gordon Brown failed and should be replaced.

The Commons Treasury Select Committee’s report on the collapse of Northern Rock said that the Financial Services Authority had “systematically failed in its duty” to oversee the troubled bank’s activities. Little did it realise that Northern Rock was not alone and only a tiny tip of a titanic sized iceberg.

4. Creating a Complicated Tax Credit System

While the tax credit system works for some there is no doubt it is too complicated and prone to mistake.

Take the example of Simon Blackmore, 38, who was pursued for £6,057 in over-paid tax credits. He says, “Gordon Brown claims the tax credits system lifts children out of poverty, maybe it does, but only to plunge them and their families into debt two years later.”

Millions of low-income families have had to pay back the Treasury after receiving too much money in tax credits, putting them under huge financial and emotional strain. Meanwhile, 40 per cent of workers and families who deserved tax credits left billions of pounds unclaimed in the 2008-09 tax year for fear of being chased for the cash later on. Introduced in 1999, reformed in 2000, tax credits have been "a complete disaster zone", according to tax experts.

5. The £10,000 Corporation Tax Threshold

In 2002, Gordon Brown introduced a new tax regime to help small businesses. He announced a new zero per cent rate of corporation tax on profits below £10,000. It was designed to boost the ability of small businesses to grow and prosper. But instead of doing what it was intended to achieve it became a vehicle for massive tax avoidance as sole traders such as taxi drivers or plumbers found it became advantageous to turn themselves into limited companies to take advantage of the new rules.

A Treasury Minister later commented that "the Government did not realise how many people would engage in abusive tax avoidance", despite the fact that it was "blindingly obvious" to tax experts "within 5 seconds" of the budget announcement that this would happen.

Gordon scrapped the rules a few years later, raising the rate from 0 per cent to 19 per cent when he released how much money was being lost.

6. Abolition of the 10p Tax Rate

Gordon Brown is not known for his apologies and very rarely admits "mistakes".

Over the abolition of the 10p tax rate in 2007, Mr Brown told Radio 4's Today programme that "we made two mistakes. We didn't cover as well as we should that group of low-paid workers who don't get the working tax credits and we weren't able to help the 60 to 64-year-olds who didn't get the pensioner's tax allowance."

Experts use stronger language to describe the Budget of 2007, which was designed to produce positive headlines for the 2p cut in income tax. Accountants calculated that the scrapping of the 10 per cent tax rate, coupled with the increase in the proportion of tax credits withdrawn from higher earners, would leave 1.8 million workers earning between £6,500 and £15,000 paying an effective tax rate of up to 70 per cent.

7. Failing to Spot the Housing Bubble

Gordon Brown said he ended boom and bust, and in those innocent days before the collapse of the global finance system many believed him.

In 1997, he outlined his plans. "Stability is necessary for our future economic success", he wisely informed an audience at the CBI. "The British economy of the future must be built not on the shifting sands of boom and bust, but on the bedrock of prudent and wise economic management."

The other components of that bedrock including a trillion-pound debt mountain and a decade of unchecked and unparalleled house price inflation presumably slipped his mind.

In 2003 a mild-mannered Liberal Democrat MP by the name of Vince Cable dared to question the mantra of "the end of boom and bust". He asked Gordon Brown: "Is it not true that...the growth of the British economy is sustained by consumer spending pinned against record levels of personal debt, which is secured, if at all, against house prices that the Bank of England describes as well above equilibrium level?"

Gordon replied: "The Honourable Gentleman has been writing articles in the newspapers, as reflected in his contribution, that spread alarm, without substance, about the state of the economy..."

We all know what happened next and it is Vince Cable who earns plaudits for having the foresight to question Gordon Brown's claims of infallibility. Credit where credit is due!

8. Creating a 50 per cent Tax Rate

The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said the tax hike which heralded the end of the New Labour project may actually end up losing the Government money. "If you look at what happened when higher rates were last changed in the 1980s, that might lead you to suggest that such a move might actually lose you revenue, rather than gain it, as people actually declare less income for tax,". In the meantime significant numbers of high net worth individuals are abandoning the UK for lower tax economies depriving our exchequer of even more revenue.

9. Cutting VAT

"It would be funny if it wasn't so serious," said a tax accountant when asked about the Brown-Darling brainwave to cut VAT by 2.5 percentage points. As a nation of shoppers, rather than shopkeepers, a chopped down sales tax sounds like a good idea, providing a vital boost to hard-pressed families at a time of financial hardship. There were two problems. It costs £12.5 billion a year and it has made little discernible difference to those hard-pressed families because it is shopkeepers, rather than shoppers, who have pocketed much of the benefit.

10. Public-Sector Borrowing

If we had only saved a little more in the good times, we might have had a little more to fall back on in the bad. Last month saw public-sector net borrowing hit £19.9 billion, the highest on record, according to the Office for National Statistics. Alistair Darling has forecast Government borrowing will reach £175 billion this year. It is forecast that total government debt will double to 79 per cent of GDP by 2013, the highest level since World War 2. The Institute for Fiscal Studies recently warned that "the scale of the underlying problem that the Treasury’s detailed forecasts identify will require two full parliaments of mounting austerity to repair.”



So here's to a year of hope, opportunity and change. I am sure East Renfrewshire is ready to play its part in setting our country on its way to recovery although, as I hope you can see, it is now inevitable we will all be paying for Gordon's gaffes for many years to come even in he leaves office in 2010.

A Very Merry Christmas One And All

Christmas is a magical time and I can think of nowhere better to celebrate it than right here in East Renfrewshire.



I have hugely fond memories over my years at Carolside Primary, at Williamwood High, with the 128 Boys Brigade, at Giffnock Tennis Club and with family and friends across the district.

Today my wife, Elaine, and I celebrate our first Christmas as parents. Myles is too young to really understand what is happening, although he seemed very excited to meet Santa for the first time earlier this week. While family and friends will undoubtedly spoil him rotten I want more than that for Myles. I am determined to ensure 2010 becomes the year that East Renfrewshire plays its part in sorting out the economic disaster we face as a result of Labour's recession.

Unless we act now our children and grandchildren will be the ones left to pay for the mistakes of today. Every child now owes £23,000 thanks to Labour's debt crisis, and that simply isn't fair on future generations or in the best interests of our country. We owe it to each other to choose a path of stability and responsibility in government and we will get our chance to help make this change at the polls in the coming year, by voting for David Cameron and the Conservatives.

I know just how difficult things are for so many people in these difficult economic times, particularly as unemployment has rocketed across East Renfrewshire over the past year. On behalf of my family and all at East Renfrewshire Conservatives can I wish you a very Happy Christmas and best wishes for 2010.

Day 2 - Being straight with the British people

Lots of good events at the Conference fringe but only one thing being discussed in the bars - George Osborne's speech.

We all know our nations finances are in a mess thanks to a reckless Labour government and that radical measures are required to bring our budget into balance and to build a better Britain for future generations. The problem is how to communicate this to an electorate already feeling the pain of Labour's recession and yet to feel the even greater pain of their massive public debt.

George was at pains to remain serious throughout and to stress "we are all in this together". Just how bad things are we can only begin to guess, so his speech was a finely balanced attempt to be honest with the public about just how difficult the choices made by a Conservative government would be.

The following are examples of specific savings that should be made in addition to the tens of billions of pounds of efficiency savings and productivity improvements that the Conservatives would deliver throughout the public sector over the next Parliament in order to reduce waste, deliver more for less, and protect front line public services.

The measures would save more than £7 billion a year in government spending by the end of the next Parliament, or more than £23 billion over the Parliament. These savings come on top of the longer term savings from raising the State Pension Age.

These measures could all be implemented without harming front line public services, and show how the burden of dealing with Labour’s debt crisis should be shared fairly while protecting the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.

Reduce the cost of government without harming front line services:

· The Government should recommend no headline increase in pay for all public sector workers in 2011, except for the lowest paid one million who should be protected. Military personnel on active service overseas should be more than compensated by doubling the Operational Allowance to an average of £4,800 for a six month tour of duty. Altogether this would reduce government spending by £3.2 billion a year from 2011 onwards, or more than £12 billion over the next Parliament. These savings are equivalent to protecting more than 100,000 public sector jobs.

· The Government should set out plans to reduce the administrative costs of Whitehall bureaucracy and Quangos by at least one third. This would reduce government spending by £3 billion a year by the end of the next Parliament, or by more than £7 billion over the Parliament.


· The Government should find ways to cap the biggest government pensions, including those for senior civil servants, local council executives and Quango managers. This cap should prevent any taxpayer-funded increase in senior government pensions already worth over £50,000 a year, and stop all taxpayer-funded pensions for these groups in future exceeding £50,000 a year. This would reduce the growth of public sector pension liabilities by hundreds of millions of pounds over the next decade.

Concentrate benefit spending on the poorest and most vulnerable:

· The Government should stop new spending on Child Trust Funds for better off families. Disabled children and the poorest one third of families should continue to receive both new Child Trust Funds at birth and top-up payments. This would save £300 million a year or £1.5 billion over the next Parliament.

· The Government should stop paying tax credits to households with incomes over £50,000 by starting to means-test the Family Element of the Child Tax Credit at a lower threshold. This would save £400 million a year or £2.0 billion over the next Parliament.

· The Government should cut benefits by up to £25 a week for anyone currently receiving Incapacity Benefit who fails a new work test and is therefore entitled only to Jobseekers Allowance. This would save more than £1 billion over the next Parliament, of which £600 million should be used to help get the unemployed back into work.

Ensure that the burden is shared fairly:

· The new 50p tax rate and associated changes to the taxation of higher earners should be kept in place for at least as long as the public sector pay freeze, in order to ensure that the richest in our society pay their fair share of the burden of tackling Labour’s debt crisis.

· We hope the new international rules on bankers’ bonuses work – that is the best solution. But if we find the money that should be going into stronger bank balance sheets is being unreasonably diverted into bigger pay and bonuses, we reserve the right to take further action and that includes using the tax system. We believe in the free market not a free ride.

Tackle the pensions time bomb while ensuring a decent standard of living in old age:

· The Government should announce an updated review of the state pension age, as recommended by Adair Turner’s Pension Commission. Given the state of the public finances and rapidly changing demographic projections, the review should consider whether the increase in the pension age from 65 to 66 should be brought forward from 2026, but starting no earlier than 2016 for men and 2020 for women.

· This should be combined with a renewed commitment to re-link the state pension to earnings growth in the next Parliament in order to ensure a decent standard of living for all in retirement, halt the spread of means-testing and restore incentives to save.

· According to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, every year by which the pension age is increased reduces government borrowing by about two thirds of a per cent of GDP. Once the pension age for both men and women increases by a year there will be a saving of around £13 billion a year.


So, no matter how good a time you have catching up with old friends and sharing ideas with new colleagues you can't help thinking about the problems that lie ahead for our country. Serious times demand serious men and women ready to make serious decisions and today I think we saw George Osborne is ready to be one of them.

Mervyn King - finally someone in power talking sense!

Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, is not one renowned for interfering in government policy and yet he has publicly criticised the Prime Ministers desire for further economic stimulus.

In short, Mr. King is saying that UK Plc simply cannot afford any more debt. With the total liability of the taxpayer now more than £2 trillion, when you include our liability for part nationalised banks and current economic stimulus packages, it is clear the Bank of England believe that any further government financial stimulus that requires us to borrow more as a nation will essentially mean we go bust.

And the reaction of government? Well that is difficult to tell. Gordon Brown says there is no disagreement between his Government and the Bank of England, Harriet Harman refused to answer any question put to her on the subject when she stood in for Mr. Brown at Prime Minister's Questions today and the media report that the Chancellor is in general agreement with Mr. King.

That the Prime Minister still believes further economic stimulus is affordable shows just how deeply entrenched within him the feeling of denial has become. If British families have to live within their means so must the British government. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. So it's time to face up to the consequences of our actions as a nation and to admit we are on the brink of bankruptcy as a nation and must stop trying to spend our way out of trouble and get real for the sake of future generations.

Scotland's Nuclear Ambition Will Send Alex Ballistic!

If ever you want proof that the public know what's best for them while politicians prefer to listen to pressure groups within their own party, look no further that the debate on nuclear energy.

With the vast majority of Scots in favour of building more nuclear power stations in Scotland, to ensure we have energy security for generations to come, it is clear Alex Salmond and his SNP Scottish Executive remain completely out of touch with public opinion by continuing to exercise their veto over new planning applications for nuclear stations in Scotland.

In uncertain economic times only nuclear offers Scotland the energy security our economy needs. Russia switches the gas supply on and off as they see fit and oil remains both volatile in price and damaging to our environment. How else are we to ensure the lights don't go out when the wind doesn't blow?

Surely Alex Salmond and his band of increasingly unmerry men must now abandon their opposition to new nuclear power stations in Scotland in the national interest? If they do so and masquerade it in the press as doing what is right during this recession though through gritted teeth, I for one will cheer!

Hold On Tight For A Bumpy Quantitative Easing Ride

I am no longer sure the Government have any idea what they are doing!

Just a few weeks ago it would have been inconceivable, and considered bad practice, for us to be borrowing as a country at 10%, more than twenty times our national base rate. It would have been inconceivable, and considered bad practice, for interest rates to be at 0.5% providing no incentive for people to deposit money in banks that need to be better financed. And it certainly would be inconceivable, and considered bad practice, for the Bank of England to be printing £75billion of new money to buy questionable assets.

To make printing of money more palatable it is given a fancy name - quantitative easing! Sounds okay, means little to most people, but if we get this wrong the risks to every single one of us are massive.

If the additional money in our economy is too much, or the assets it buys prove to be worthless, we risk massive devaluation of Sterling on the international money markets, which in turn could lead to hyper inflation. Imagine the difficulties ordinary families would face in the midst of a recession if the cost of goods starts to shoot up because we import so much and our currency devalues every day. That is the threat posed by quantitative easing if it goes wrong in any way and yet no one is talking about this and warning the public of the risks Labour are taking with their way of life.

The United Kingdom is no Zimbabwe and yet that is exactly what Labour are turning us into, minus land grabs and police brutality. Labour are taking huge risks in the hope of saving their own political skins and what they are doing to us all is delivering an economic policy that is simply too risky and irresponsible to make any sort of sense.

The Truth About Boom & Bust

Have you ever wanted to see something simple that shows the underlying strength and underlying truth about our economy?

Let me help you!

Our stock market, in particular the FTSE 100, provides a fascinating insight as to how strong our companies are in good time and in bad. From Margaret Thatcher's election as Prime Minister in 1979 through to the end of John Major's premiership in 1997 the FTSE rose consistently - though admittedly with the odd peak and trough as markets reacted to national and international economic circumstances.

Having inherited a golden legacy, New Labour presided over a few more years of growth. There followed a massive correction in the market, between 2000 and 2003, before the FTSE shot back up to levels close to its peak through to 2008. The truth is that the markets knew the underlying strength of our economy was massively overvalued because our economy was based on a mountain of national and personal debt. What has followed over the past year is the product of a decade of borrowing in times of plenty instead of saving up for a rainy day.

So if you ever want to be able to show someone the truth about "Boom & Bust" show them this graph. The difference between good economic management and economic management based on rhetoric and debt is simply the difference between Conservative Government and Labour Government.

Let's hope we get back to some sound economic management before it's too late!

How Bad Could It Really Be?

When the governments own regulatory watchdog predicts that our economic slump might be worse than feared you know things are going to get really bad.


The Financial Services Authority warned today that Britain's recession could go deeper and last longer than expected, despite the government's fiscal stimulus and multi-billion pound economic rescue plans. Possibly more telling they say, about their own bosses, the impact of measures like reduced interest rates and the government's £12billion VAT cut remained unclear, and advise businesses and consumers to "plan for a greater degree of uncertainty than normal".


If this is the assessment of our own FSA you can only wonder what the OECD, IMF and World Bank are thinking. My greatest fear is that Labour are ignoring any economic forecasts they don't want to admit to favouring a scorched earth policy designed to leave the next government with nothing to work with. The only good news is that I am in doubt the energy, ingenuity and dedication of the British people will see us through to a prosperous future despite the actions of the current government!

Interest Rates At 1% Won't Make A Blind Bit Of Difference!

The Bank of England cut their headline interest rate by 0.5% today to 1%. In times gone by, when our economy was managed by cuts in interest rates that were designed to manage the inflationary trend of our economy, this sort of intervention would undoubtedly have done the trick and an almost immediate benefit to our economy would have resulted.



The problem we have today is not that interest rates are in any way the problem. Quite the contrary, and today's cut will only serve to penalise the millions of prudent savers with money deposited in banks and building societies - many of whom rely on interest payments to make ends meet.


Across the UK the problem faced by our economy is not the cost of borrowing - it is the reluctance of banks to lend!


Despite the taxpayer owning many of our banks it appears our government are unable to get them to relax lending criteria so that businesses can borrow to invest in our future.


Why? Simply because it is government policy that tells banks to pay us back as quick as they can and to reduce their exposure to bad debt as they do so.


So what are banks actually doing instead of lending to viable businesses? They are foreclosing on businesses in trouble and in homeowners struggling to keep up payments in compliance with government instructions.


In conclusion, today's interest rates cut will damage those who have done the right thing by saving and do very little to help those who need to borrow, because none of our lending institutions will take any risk. So despite hundreds of millions of pounds spent on bailing out our banks cuts in interest rates are simply not doing anything to help our economy recover.

Lib Dems Bought Off In Return For More Public Debt

That the Scottish Parliament Budget will go through with majority support tomorrow is a very good thing for Scotland.

The additional £1.8billion that will be released into the Scottish economy over the coming 12 months will be a vital shot in the arm for an economy in a dreadful condition after more than a decade of Labour mismanagement.

The interesting thing about the decision of the Lib Dems to vote for the budget tomorrow is that their support is being gained in return for one single penny of better public spending. They are simply being bought by a commitment from the SNP to lobby for Scotland to have greater borrowing powers under devolution.

With every one of us already set to owe more than £17,000 as our share of public sector debt the answer to Scotland's ills is surely not more public borrowing/debt. If we want to see public sector infrastructure projects start, to boost an economy in recession, the best way to deliver this is to seek private sector investment not to increase the national debt.

The problem for us all is that while the Lib Dems at Westminster have people like Vince Cable talking a lot of sense they are left at Holyrood with Tavish Scott saying a lot that makes no sense. If ever the Lib Dems in Scotland wanted to prove they are rapidly becoming an electoral irrelevance and a danger to the Scottish public their actions throughout the 2009 budget process is surely a good example of them being rebels without any cause.

Reverting Back To Type?

I have a great deal of sympathy for British workers who will struggle to find work because of the decision to bring in Italian and Portuguese workers to deliver a contract awarded to an Italian firm. The people to blame are not, however, the foreign workers or the company who awarded the contract in the first place. The people we should blamed are the Labour government who, over the past 12 years, have changed contract and employment law to allow this to happen.

I don't expect Labour will accept that the Social Chapter and minimum wage legislation they enforced on this country have down sides, as well as positives. In good times the positives provided great benefit to our communities and they were easy to defend, but the truth is they are too rigid in their design and when companies need some flexibility to navigate through difficult economic times the way this legislation is structured in the UK means they find it very difficult to do what is best for the employees they are able to continue to employ.

Our Trade Unions were quick to demand the introduction of many of the laws that are now disadvantaging their members and they must reconcile this with any decision to allow secondary strike action. Instead of reverting back to type perhaps UK Trade Union' should question why Gordon Brown's great claim of "British jobs for British workers" is proving to be nothing more than a hollow Labour soundbite?

Wildcat strikes in the power industry will ultimately mean only two groups of people suffer - the striking workers who lose pay and the public who will pay more for their power to compensate for any loses incurred by generating companies.

What our country needs now is a government prepared to stand up for British interests at home and abroad. Labour have failed to do this over the past 12 years and, whether you are a trade union member or not, we are all now suffering as a result.

Don't turn on the Tele or pick up a Newspaper. It will only depress you!

I joked today with people playing Bridge at Eastwood House that Hugh Edwards should be banned from opening the BBC Six O'clock News by saying "and here is the news" because it should really be "and here is the bad news".

The media persist in battering us with more and more stories of job losses, business failures, financial loss by the government and taxpayer, further loss of business confidence and political sleaze. They do so, I am sure, in the interests of fairness and no doubt citing the public's right to know, but what they fail to understand is that as much as we all do want to be told the truth and how bad things are going to get we also want to hear that things will get better and that in time we can all expect better times to come.

So today it was terrific to hear that 1,000 new jobs are going to be created in the Clyde shipbuilding industry. Proper jobs are being created in manufacturing just as we lose thousands of jobs in the service sector. What a turn around! Welders, engineers, riggers, pipe fitters and crane operators are all to be recruited so that our shipyards can fulfil MoD contracts and are a welcome ray of sunshine on what appears to be a dark economic horizon.

The SNP should call it Quits on LIT

News that HM Revenue & Customs are to write to John Swinney to inform him they do not have the power to collect Local Income Tax on behalf of the Scottish Executive should surely consign LIT to the political dustbin!

The Scotland Act allows the Scottish Parliament to vary the level of income tax set by Westminster by 3%, up or down, but it does not make any provision for HMR&C to collect any other form of taxation on behalf of the Scottish Parliament.

I am, in principle, opposed to a Local Income Tax replacing Council Tax for a very great number of reasons. Not least of these is that it will be yet another disincentive to work, alongside many of the current UK governments schemes.

What Scotland, and indeed the UK, needs is government that makes people pay for the services they receive and leaves the public with as much of their own money as is possible. Ordinary people can then decide whether they want to save their money or to spend it on their own personal priorities.

It has been the policies of politicians and the personal greed of individuals that has got us into this recession and it will be the actions of individuals that will get us out of it. For me politicians must now facilitate the role of the individual and not make matters worse for generations to come by consigning them to never ending debt in the form of permanent tax increases to pay for the folly of endless state spending in the good times while keeping nothing back for bad times!

Too little, Too late!

Given the position our economy is now in, it is not with any glee that Conservatives will welcome the business loans guarantee scheme the government are set to announce tomorrow. After all we have been calling on Labour to introduce such a scheme for months!

The real pity is that Labour are apparently to announce the value of this scheme will be less than £20billion over its lifetime. In contrast, George Osborne is calling for a £50billion scheme because we can't afford for this scheme to fail because government are not prepared to do what it takes to get credit flowing to businesses once again.

The truth is that no one really knows what it will take to get credit flowing to the business sector, but surely it is sensible to offer too much than too little if you are in government and really want to make sure you get the job done!

Council Tax Freeze would be good but a Council Tax Cut is what we need!

John Swinney's proposed Council Tax freeze is to be welcomed and if it ends up being the only show in town is something we should grab. The trouble is that it doesn't go nearly far enough given he is claiming his budget will help Scotland combat the recession.

So many people are already hurting in these difficult economic times and more are already worried they will join the ranks of the unemployed in the coming year. So a budget that provides for a Council Tax cut is something that would be widely welcomed and put real money into the pockets of everyone who is supposed to have disposable income to pay Council Tax.

The Scottish Conservative proposal to utilise the £281 million of savings identified by the SNP Scottish Executive to provide a Council Tax cut for every household now is something Scotland needs desperately NOW. Giving every household an extra £150 to spend can only be good for our economy and good for our own local community. After all, as a famous supermarket brand would say, "every little helps".

Salmond's SNP Folly!

It is not completely unheard of for a politician or a political party to make one mistake, but it is pretty rare to have one party make two big mistakes in one day!

Alex Salmond's claim that Scotland should adopt the Euro because Sterling is "sinking like a stone" completely misses the point. Scotland is in trouble not because our currency is weak or strong. We are in trouble because Labour's economic policy have led us to disaster and diverting public attention from this is simply letting Labour off the hook. Indeed, the only reason Sterling has devalued so massively against other currencies is our Labour Governments decision to print so much extra cash to pump into the banking system and as other countries follow suit Sterling has recovered slightly in recent days to more than £1 - €1.10 tonight from near parity a few days ago.

The second display of stupidity from the SNP today was the rejection of the Conservatives offer of talks on how to fund the new Forth road crossing. For a party who claims to want the best for Scotland to act is such a narrow minded way on an infrastructure project of such importance to the economy of Scotland is simply staggering.

If Alex Salmond wants the SNP to work for the people of Scotland he must stop the politics of gripe and division and work with everyone who has Scotland's best interests at heart. That is what difficult economic times demand of us all.

Helping Those Who Want To Work

Shadow Secretary of State for Works and Pensions, Chris Grayling MP, visited Edinburgh today to announce a whole range of measures Conservatives intend to take to help businesses stay afloat, to help individuals survive the recession and to help those who find themselves made unemployed get back to work as quickly as possible, should they win the next General Election.

A wide range of business organisations were present and I think they went away encouraged by the breadth and depth of proposals Chris put forward. It is clear that David Cameron and his team genuinely understand the pain people are feeling across the country and have a very positive and definite approach to helping those most in need.

To play my part, in East Renfrewshire I propose to set up a new "East Ren Jobs Club" as a self help and support group for those struggling in difficult economic times. Whether it is help with writing of a CV, tips on interviews or simply providing someone to listen to those frustrated by the length of time it takes to find a job the East Ren Jobs Club is something I can do to help minimise the impact of the recession on East Renfrewshire.

David Cameron Giving A Little Bit To Those Who Need It Most - And Setting An Example To Those Who Need One Most!

When David Cameron announced new economic policy today I believe it was very much about doing two vital things.

First of all his announcement that everyone who is a basic tax payer will not pay any tax on interest derived from savings gives those who have been prudent a little more in their pockets as a reward for doing what is right and saving. The same applies to his proposal to increase the tax allowance of pensioners by an additional £2,000 as it is people on fixed incomes who suffer most when interest rates plummet.

Secondly his announcement sends a message to everyone that there is a real difference between Labour and the Conservatives. Labour believe the State should spend more, put everyone into unprecedented levels of debt and innocent bystanders who suffer as a result of government policy are an acceptable casualty. David Cameron believes that the State should reward those who have done the right thing in order to demonstrate, to those who have not, that saving and not spending excessively is the best way to a successful country and economy.

So many East Renfrewshire pensioners have told me that income from interest on savings they had been relying on has dried up and that they feel it is immoral that the State demand they pay tax on interest on money they paid tax on when it was genuine income. I have always agreed with this and will happily campaign alongside David Cameron for those on the lowest levels of income and pensioners on fixed incomes to be exempt from paying tax on their savings. Britain must be a fair country if its economy is to recover and in David Cameron we have a leader who clearly understands what needs to be done.

Give Us A Break Gordon!

Today's newspapers are full of the Prime Minister promising to tackle the countries big problems in the same way as he has overcome big challenges in his own personal life.

No one has more admiration for the way Gordon Brown has tackled his partial blindness than me. As someone who was so active in sport at a young age the loss of sight in one eye and the partial loss of sight in the other must have been devastating. It takes someone of particular character and courage to be able to put this aside and battle to achieve in other fields and Gordon Brown's achievements, both academic and political, speak for themselves.

Nevertheless to be making claims of preparedness to take action in tough economic times and to be feeling our pain leave us with one big question. Where have you and your government been for the past 12 months?

The 10p tax debacle was of your doing, the credit crunch and failure to deal properly with Northern Rock was of your doing and the fact that inflation is crippling households and need an interest rate rise when the housing market needs an interest rate cut is of your doing.

It is very admirable to give us kind words and big promises but it you do want to help us there is something you could do for us NOW - CALL AN ELECTION!