George Osborne’s Lloyds Bank Share Sale Pledge Is Cynical And Short-Sighted

Samuel Hooper1 Comment

George Osborne - Lloyds Bank - Lloyds Banking Group Share Sale - General Election 2015

 

It isn’t always easy defending Conservative policies. While left wing parties have the luxury of flaunting their “compassionate” credentials with every unfunded pledge and extravagant promise to spend other people’s money, those on the right have the trickier task of explaining that a smaller, less interventionist state and a safety net reserved for those in real need is the only true path to a happier, more self sufficient population.

Visit any left-leaning website or listen to any left-wing activist speak, and it won’t take long before you hear a tirade against the “Evil Tories”, who in the minds of their accusers are not just wrong, but positively eager to hurt the poor and hound the vulnerable. Whether it’s on healthcare and the NHS, welfare reform, tax policy or public services, British conservatives always begin every argument ten points behind, having to battle against the widely-held assumption that conservative policies are motivated only by greed and a desire to protect the interests of those at the top.

Countering this false, pernicious narrative is hard enough at the best of times. And it really doesn’t help when patrician-sounding Conservative politicians like George Osborne announce the “sale” of partly nationalised Lloyds Bank to the public at a discounted price, a giveaway for the middle classes, the politically engaged and the financially literate at the expense of everyone else.

From George Osborne’s triumphalist announcement, published in the Telegraph:

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Labour’s NHS Party Election Broadcast: Jo Brand Is A Big Fat Liar

Samuel Hooper5 Comments

 

“A decent society looks after its people” is the moralising title of Labour’s latest celebrity election broadcast about the NHS, starring comedian Jo Brand.

That Jo Brand is a loyal supporter of the Labour Party hardly comes as a shock – the comedian was a supporter of the People’s Assembly anti-austerity coalition, and performed at the Stand Up Against Reality Austerity gig organised by that group last year. And credit where credit is due: she puts her time and money where her mouth is, supporting a cause she believes in. But unfortunately, in the case of Labour Party scaremongering about the NHS, that cause is a blatant falsehood.

Brand opens Labour’s latest celebrity ad with one of those “oh! fancy seeing you here” introductions, as though we were the last people she expected to encounter as she exercised on a lone cross-trainer slap bang in the middle of a brightly lit TV studio:

“There’s an election coming up. You might know that. And we all have our own personal axes to grind. Mine is what’s gonna happen to the NHS. Not because of my undeniable status as a national fitness icon, but because once upon a time I used to be a nurse.”

Establish credibility? Check.

When debating healthcare reform in Britain, nothing sweeps away logical debate and replaces it with hushed reverence more effectively than uttering the words “I’m a nurse”, or “I’m an NHS doctor”. Suddenly the speaker becomes an oracle, imbued with deep and mystical wisdom about national healthcare policy thanks to their selfless occupation on the front lines of clinical care.

If you are employed by the NHS, that huge organisation, the largest employer in Britain and fifth largest in the world (just behind McDonald’s), is there not the slightest possibility that working for such a vast branch of government – with a bureaucratic life of its own and a very strong survival instinct – and relying on it for your pay cheque just might skew your judgement when it comes to changing structures and working practices? Apparently not.

Regardless, Jo Brand then whips out the first of her many personal axes to grind:

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BBC Election Debate: A Smug Festival Of Left Wing Groupthink, Plus UKIP

Samuel Hooper14 Comments

BBC Challengers Debate - Leaders Debate - General Election 2015 - Nigel Farage Stands Alone

 

“Work with us to keep the Tories out of government!”

“If we work together, we can lock Cameron out of Number 10.”

“We have a chance to kick David Cameron out of Downing Street. Don’t turn your back on it, people will never forgive you…”

Rabble, rabble, rabble.

To watch the leaders of Labour, Plaid Cymru, the SNP and the Green Party plead with the audience – and each other – at last night’s BBC Election “Challengers” Debate, you would think that Britain faced the awful prospect of some fascist or totalitarian party seizing power on 8 May this year, thus requiring all decent people to put aside their differences and band together in solidarity against a visceral, urgent threat to our way of life.

But the hideous spectre conjured by Ed Miliband, Leanne Wood, Nicola Sturgeon and Natalie Bennett is not a latter-day Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin – or even a contemporary African tin-pot dictator. No, we are asked to believe that the mortal threat to Britain and her people comes  in the pale, patrician form of David Cameron – who has already held the top job for five years without successfully summoning the apocalypse – perhaps propped up by the equally unthreatening Nigel Farage (Nigel being just the type of fearsome name that strikes terror into the heart of even the bravest soul).

The British left is used to preaching to the choir and percolating in its own intellectual laziness, having long ago purged from the bubble anyone who doesn’t reflexively Hate the Tories and abhor right-wing ideas. But today we witnessed Britain’s four left wing party leaders construct and imprison themselves in a bubble of their own making, right on the stage at Westminster Central Hall.

From the BBC’s account of the debate:

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UKIP’s General Election Manifesto: A Serious Offering From A Serious Party

Samuel Hooper6 Comments

UKIP 2015 General Election Manifesto Launch - Thurrock Essex - Nigel Farage - Suzanne Evans

 

For British voters who believe in the wisdom of small government and personal freedom – as well as those who believe that the British people are capable of achieving so much more than angrily lobbying for endless new perks and benefits from the state – the 2015 general election campaign thus far has been a dreary, depressing spectacle.

But in Thurrock today, the United Kingdom Independence Party gave what was perhaps their most convincing pitch to voters thus far, with the launch of their 2015 general election manifesto, entitled “Believe in Britain”.

This blog wholeheartedly concurs with the introduction to UKIP’s manifesto, in which Suzanne Evans (Deputy Chairman, Policy) bemoans the remarkable lack of optimism and faith in Britain now evident, to some degree, in all of the other political parties:

If only all politicians could believe in Britain as UKIP does. If only they could share our positive vision of Britain as a proud, independent sovereign nation, a country respected on the world stage, a major player in global trade, with influence and authority when it comes to tackling the pressing international issues of the day.

And on issue after issue, UKIP are making themselves an increasingly plausible, reasonable choice for liberty-minded voters to make when they vote on 7 May.

On fiscal policy, UKIP advocate a flatter, less redistributionist tax structure which puts the Conservatives to shame:

The longer term aspiration of a UKIP government will be to create an income tax structure of a basic rate of 20 per cent, an intermediate rate of 30 per cent, and a top rate of 40 per cent, meaning income taxes will be flatter and lower. Bringing down taxes on working people at the bottom and in the middle ranges of the income scale is our priority. In the longer term, we will aim to restore the personal allowance to those earning over £100,000 and make 40 per cent the top rate of tax for all, as it used to be.

On defence, UKIP can now make a plausible claim to be the new natural party of the Armed Forces, showing a commitment both to our veterans and to the robust defence Britain’s national interests that make the other parties – who have treated the Defence budget as a piggy bank to be raided to fund fuzzy electoral bribes, rather than the most sacred function of a nation state – look opportunistic and immature by comparison:

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Labour’s 2015 General Election Manifesto Starts With A Lie, And Then Gets Worse

Samuel HooperLeave a comment

Labour Party General Election Manifesto 2015 - Budget Responsibility Lock - Debt and Deficit Confusion

 

Much has been made of the fact that the Labour Party’s 2015 general election manifesto begins with a so-called “Budget Responsibility Lock” to fully fund all spending commitments and reduce the deficit every year – locks and ‘triple locks’ currently being all the rage in British politics.

But Labour’s manifesto also begins with a blatant lie, and nobody seems to have called them out on it. So here it is, straight from the preamble to Ed Miliband’s pitch to the voters:

We will get national debt falling and a surplus on the current budget as soon as possible in the next parliament. This manifesto sets out that we will not compromise on this commitment.

No, this manifesto does nothing of the kind. In place of honesty, Labour’s manifesto actually tries to hoodwink the British people by conflating the current budget and eliminating the current budget deficit with the overall budget and eliminating the overall budget deficit.

Eliminating the current deficit is simply not the same as getting rid of the deficit altogether and restoring a budget surplus. The current deficit refers only to the gap between tax receipts and day-to-day government spending (i.e. excluding capital expenditure). Therefore, it is quite possible to run a current budget surplus while still running an overall budget deficit. And why does this matter? Because you can’t begin to pay down the national debt so long as there is any kind of budget deficit!

To deploy one of those awful but ubiquitous credit card analogies:

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