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.

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.

Defending the Indefensible.

The one thing a sales career in the private sector teaches you is that you should never try to defend the indefensible!

At Prime Ministers Questions today, Gordon Brown set about defending his much heralded statement, "British Jobs for British Workers", without any hint of apology. Apparently it was only meant to refer to training British workers for jobs, not about actually ensuring there are jobs for them to fulfill at the end of their training. That wasn't what anyone thought this statement to Labour's Party Conference meant and it certainly wasn't what the way Labour's spin machine pitched it at the time.

I am becoming increasingly frustrated that Prime Ministers Questions does not actual include any Prime Minister Answers, unless this is to a placed question from Labour benches.

David Cameron was perfectly correct today to accuse Gordon Brown of two faced hypocrisy - lecturing international summits on the evils of protectionism while using slogans back home such as "British jobs for British workers", which simply pander to domestic protectionist fears.

The only real answer now is surely a General Election so that Britain can find some answers of its own that work for us, both at home and abroad.

Labour learn an Expenses lesson!

That Gordon Brown and the Labour Party even tried to push through legislation that would have kept MP expenses secret from the taxpayer showed a scandalous disregard for the public’s right to scrutinise parliamentary expenses.

The taxpayer pays MPs expenses and they have every right to know whether their money is being spent properly. Labour also wasted vast amounts of taxpayer’s money in Court proceedings and in parliamentary time trying to hide from the public full details of the expenses claimed by MPs, which after all are financed by us.

With Britain forecast to suffer the worst recession of any major economy surely it is the role of government to do everything possible to ensure what money we do spend is spent wisely. Neither MPs nor HMRC would think it acceptable if other public servants or ordinary taxpayers did not have to account for their expenses so it is incredible Labour MPs thought they could get away with this.

In trying to legislate to avoid MPs being subject to common good financial practise Labour brought politics into further disrepute. Is it any wonder the electorate are disenchanted with politicians and feel they are all in it for the money when bad apples act in such a dishonourable way?

Good News - Bad News

The news that Gordon Brown is to spend up to £200billion to bolster our ailing banks is very bad news indeed unless you believe it is 100% guaranteed to work! While it is right to do everything we can to avoid complete disaster it is wrong to take risks and gambles and to accelerate our national debt by an additional £200billion given he already intends to leave us owing £1.1 trillion by the end of 2011.

Could we be looking at bankrupt Britain? I very much fear we might be if the true level of toxic debt held by our big four banks is greater than the money now on offer. If it is they will surely go down - rendering our shareholding in them worthless.

If Plan B fails, (given this is his second attempt to bale out our banks), we should prepare ourselves for the IMF to declare us a basket case and to take over the running of our economy. The thought of external influences setting our levels of taxation, deciding how much capital and interest we repay to the world before spending anything that remains on the NHS, eduction or defence is simply frightening as a British patriot.



And what is the good news, I hear you ask? Well ,if there is nothing else to cheer me up before the Summer, I am to become a father for the first time in July - thanks to my beautiful wife Elaine. So, no matter how bad Gordon Brown makes the economy of our country and how difficult it becomes to make ends meet, I know there is something worth working for on the horizon and someone for whom I must fight to make our country better in the future!

Loss Of Bank Of Scotland Is A Travesty!

I believe in the free market and in the right of individuals to work hard and to prosper as a result of their hard work. But the shenanigans surrounding the purchase of Halifax Bank of Scotland by Lloyd's TSB leave me thinking our Government and their financial regulatory structures leave a lot to be desired.

Today we discovered that Gordon Brown personally knew that HBoS was in talks to be bought out by Lloyd's TSB a week ago and took personal control of ensuring the regulatory authorities approved the purchase given the current economic climate and despite potential monopolies concerns.

Knowing all this the Prime Minister then did nothing to stop the run on the banks shares over the past few days even though he knew there was no cause for concern about the banks liquidity. This means he knew that those attacking HBoS shares were doing so in order to make large "personal" financial gains and given the coordinated and sustained nature of trading he must have suspected there may have been an element of insider knowledge attached to these sales.

The loss of the Bank of Scotland brand from UK high streets and to Scotland's corporate and social life is a disaster. Scotland's second largest company had the right to expect our Government would protect them from unwarranted attack, but Government and its regulators let HBoS down. It's time for a Government who believes in protecting our great Institutions and that ensures fairness across our economy - clearly that rules the current Government out!

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!

Milliband For Chancellor?

This time of year is commonly known as 'silly season' when it comes to the political news stories national media outlets are prepared to run.

Tonight a contributor to BBC Radio Five Live 'flew a kite' suggesting David Milliband will be promoted, in an imminent Gordon Brown cabinet reshuffle, to the post of Chancellor of the Exchequer. The principle rationale given is the old adage that in politics you "keep your friends close and your enemies closer".

Asked to give a couple of other reasons for this promotion the contributor responded that with the economy disappearing down a hole the post of Chancellor is possibly the worst job in cabinet, "a thankless task", and that being in the second most important job in British politics makes it difficult to launch any leadership bid without damaging yourself by being portrayed as treacherous and disloyal.

Whether Gordon Brown is Machiavellian enough to promote David Milliband to Chancellor remains to be seen. What is clear is that if he were to do nothing with/to Mr Milliband in the event of a reshuffle he will be portrayed as weak and this would strengthen the hand of those who accuse him of dithering and not being decisive enough.

Who would be an unelected, 3rd term, Labour Prime Minister, eh?

Bravery Beyond Belief

Watching tonight's evening news I could not help but be struck by the professionalism and integrity of army personnel, even as they returned the bodies of comrades killed in battle to British soil.

Today has been a day to ponder the sacrifice of our armed services as they discharge their duties in order to protect Queen and country - regardless of the legitimacy and risk of the orders they are required to discharge.

As five bodies of soldiers from 2nd Battalion, the Parachute Regiment, were returned to RAF Lyneham in coffins draped in the Union Flag, I was struck that rather than attending the short ceremony to honour our war dead conducted by our service personnel Gordon Brown was announcing the deployment of an additional 230 British troops to Afghanistan at a press conference before the worlds media.

That our Prime Minister decided to make this announcement in front of President George W. Bush instead of making the initial announcement of this deployment to the House of Commons says much about his desire to be seen to be a big player on the world stage. It also shows his contempt for parliament and flies in the face of his pledge on entering No.10 that he is a man who wants to see an end to spin over substance.

Our armed services deserve to be treated with the utmost respect and in the finest traditions of British way of life. This requires our government to formally notify all troop deployments to the sovereign parliament of the country they serve with such pride first. The British people know that our brave service men and women conduct their duties to protect our shared values of democracy, the rule of law and mutual respect - and we should demand our countries Prime Minister shows them the respect they are due for putting their lives on the line to protect others.

So in summary, today was a day of mixed emotions. Pride in our armed services, and in their conduct as they returned fallen heroes to British soil, and anger at the lack of respect shown to them by our government. If you ever need to describe what is best about Britain look no further than our armed services to provide examples of dignity, pride and selfless service. They are brave beyond belief and for that we can all be proud to be British!

Relative Poverty - Disappointment Or Disgrace?

I have always found the concept that poverty is "relative" difficult to grasp. Today's announcement that the number of children living in poverty has risen for the second year in a row is deeply depressing, even if it isn't surprising.

For our Labour government, who set themselves the goal of halving child poverty over a generation, to be presiding over such a steady increase in the number of young people growing up in poverty, leaving so many of them living in a Britain without hope, is not "disappointing", as the government described it today, it is a "disgrace"!

The Member of Parliament for East Renfrewshire, one Mr Jim Murphy, shoulders a great deal of responsibility for today's figures having served as Minister of State for Employment and Welfare Reform at the Department of Work & Pensions at the very time when the number of young people living in poverty increased so startlingly.

I am not a statistician, so I look to professionals like Professor John Hills, the head of the Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion at the London School of Economics, to guide me as to whether government policy will work. As he describes the latest figures as "disappointing if unsurprising" it appears to me there is little prospect of any improvement in the number of people living in poverty as long as we pursue policies that lack vision for our future.

Possibly most telling is the increase over the past year in the number of pensioners living in poverty. Despite all Labour's interference in our tax and benefits system since 1997, at 2.5 million there has essentially been no reduction in the number of pensioners living in poverty in the UK over the past 11 years.

So our Prime Minister should be hanging his head today in more than "relative" shame. It was his stewardship of the UK economy as Chancellor that delivered the unfair British society in which so many young people and pensioners grow up in poverty despite the highest level of taxation in generations and it is on his watch as Prime Minister that even more people seem destined to live in poverty in the future.

The day of reckoning for Labour, Mr Brown and Mr Murphy will come at the next General Election. Those living in poverty, and those of us living with the privilege of living above its "relative" measure, all want to see a fairer more inclusive society and it will be at the ballot box that we get our chance to hold them to account!

He Used To Be Decisive - But Now He's Not Sure!

When your Deputy Chief Whip is prepared to go on television and say your indecision over an autumn Election last year is proving to be a "watershed" from which your reputation has not recovered it must be time to question whether you are cut out to be Prime Minister.

June 27th 2008 represents one year of the Gordon Brown premiership and in the run up to this landmark date it is surely time we assessed his performance to date.

For me, much of what we have suffered over the past 12 months has been of our Prime Minister's own creation. After all, Mr Brown's last budget as Chancellor provided for the abolition of the 10p Income Tax band which hit the poorest in our society hardest and it was on his watch that Northern Rock trade itself into trouble. For anyone to suggest that the "we won't - we will" take Northern Rock into public ownership fiasco was not under the direction of the Prime Minister would be ludicrous and, as it destroyed all confidence in our money markets, it is he who should shoulder the blame for the economic unrest we are all suffering from today.

Looking to the future we have huge errors of judgement with a whipped vote on an issue of conscience on the Human Embryology and Fertilisation Act and attempted strong arm tactics to deliver 42-day detention without charge for terrorist suspects when the current 28-day limit has never required to be used.

So far the answer to all difficulties has been the U-Turn! While none of us have a crystal ball I would be looking to the fuel tax rise scheduled for later this year and to next years intended introduction of additional road tax bands on cars bought since 2001 for Prime Minister Brown's next major climbdown.

So, that Cabinet Ministers Jack Straw and Jacqui Smith are prepared to go on Channel 4 to question the Prime Minister's judgement and character should not really be that great a surprise.

For me Gordon Brown as Prime Minister has been a disaster! History will probably show his failure to call an election in September 2007 was a mistake for the Labour Party, but on reflection it will surely conclude it was an even bigger disaster for the people of the United Kingdom!

"Brown -v- Cameron" - PMQ's Prove It's Time For A Change!

-v-

The weekly political theatre that is Prime Minister's Questions is becoming ever more farcical. It appears to me that Prime Minister Gordon Brown stands at the dispatch box every week and simply refuses to answer any question put to him by David Cameron, more often than not seeking to ask David questions instead.

For me the contrast between the two candidates who will contest the next General Election in the hope of being returned as Prime Minister could not be more clear. There is the dispatch box thumping Gordon Brown who bangs away so loudly that the microphones of the chamber distort much of what the public are able to hear and then there is the crisp concise David Cameron who asks the Prime Minister topical and important questions the British public would really like to hear answer to.

After 11 years of Labour government, perhaps it is as simple as Mr Brown being tired and out of ideas. Perhaps it is more likely that he is simply not as good a leader as the man sitting opposite him, the man tasked by the Westminster Parliament with asking the Prime Minister "Questions" every week!

Whatever happens in the run up to the next General Election, the public deserve "answers" from their Prime Minister. After all that is why we have Prime Minister's Questions. Unfortunately, I think it is odds against us ever really hearing anything like a full and frank exchange in the near future, or at least until it is David Cameron who resides at No. 10 and who is the recipient of PMQ's.