Smiling inside
Fraser Nelson 5:50pm
I’d love to be in No10 right now. Gordon Brown will simply hate George Osborne’s council tax freeze plan – it will look, smell and sound too much like one of his own scams, and he’ll be hurling staplers and barking orders at his men to shoot down this balloon before it takes off. Yet it’s real enough. Just as last year, Osborne has identified a hugely unpopular tax (council tax), decided to freeze rather than cut it in keeping with the spirit. And he’ll pay for this by cutting something even less popular (consultants and Big Brother government advertising). And to top it off, only make the offer to councils who play ball with a Tory government in Whitehall and keep their own tax increases to 2.5%.
I bumped into Osborne just after (smiling enough to compensate for all his sternness on stage – he knows he’s nailed it) and asked him if he thinks councils will pump up the tax in April 09 and April 10 giving them a high base to cut from. He doesn’t. He showed me this flyer they’ve done up, with the words “council tax freeze” in capitals. Just as last year, he’s found a powerful tax campaigning issue for less than £3bn – a rounding error in government.
As for rest of his speech, I was (as usual) irritated by him solemnly pledging standing up to those who want “unfunded tax cuts”. He may as well promise to defy pressure from slave traders and flat-earthers. Those who want tax cuts want them paid for by the elimination of wasteful government spending. But the proof’s in the pudding: as last year he speech was made by firing a missile in the middle of it, and that missile acknowledged the sheer appetite of people wanting tax relief. An appetite Osborne is sating.
At times his delivery was almost comically slow, but he did well keeping his stern face even after he announced his tax cuts. Any snappers wanting a pic of him grinning would have been disappointed, though if they were quick they’d have got him biting his lip a few times which I suspect was intended to stifle any inclination to smile.
And him using “no time for a novice” at Gordon Brown was, I thought, inspired. It sums up the sheer audaciousness of Osborne, reminding us why this youngish man, who looks even younger, has been the most successful Tory Shadow Chancellor in at least a generation. His postscript to Brown could be “PS – plenty more where that came from”. I sincerely hope so.
Previous
GS London
September 29th, 2008 6:27pm Report this commentI'm 22, and earn £22,000, in London and am saving for a second degree. I liked what he had to say a great deal.
Rosie Took
September 29th, 2008 6:44pm Report this commentFollowing the Conference closely. Prior to this week, the choice was between not voting at all, or allowing the Conservatives to sway me one way or the other. Mission accomplished - a unified party who talk common sense gets my vote next election (sooner rather than later, Mr Brown, please).
TrevorsDen
September 29th, 2008 6:47pm Report this commentHouse of Reps have voted against the bail out plan.
Were some of them selling short?
Verity
September 29th, 2008 6:57pm Report this commentThanks, TrevorsDen. This is bizarre. I'm going over to LGF to get the story.
Verity
September 29th, 2008 7:01pm Report this comment207 Yea, 226 Nay. 217 needed to pass.
If I get any more news, I'll post it over on The Wall. Plse forgive the intrusion.
Hysteria
September 29th, 2008 7:33pm Report this commentCNN.com is covering it (along with other media outlets)
Dow, oil - all heading south.....
Dr Lucy Thompson
September 29th, 2008 8:19pm Report this commentI think GB will be smiling actually at the MASSIVE UNFUNDED SPENDING COMMITTMENT lansley has made.
If you think everyone getting a single room costs just 1.7Bn then you are mad. Will be 10Bn at least once some of the independent organisations get into it
Augustus
September 29th, 2008 8:21pm Report this commentThis may not yet be the road to Armageddon. The Republicans will come round in the end. But, at the end of the day, the financial markets give people neither what they expect nor what they want, but what they deserve. Even the masters of the universe are quite capable of being blown into the air by their own explosive devices.
TGF UKIP
September 29th, 2008 8:45pm Report this comment"The most successful Tory Shadow Chancellor in at least a generation." Come on Fraser, get a grip. Either lay off or at least take it with plenty of water.
Boy George may be your second best mate but when he and your best mate, Dave, only manage to poll within single digits either way on management of the economy, despite Gordon having driven the Brtish economy off a cliff in a welter of spending and borrowing, then your description does appear to be, shall we say, a little over emotional. But you're obviously having an enjoyable conference.
BTW, I did notice that you limited your paean to Tory Shadow Chancellors and I guess even Boy George might look a giant to you alongside the likes of Francis Maude and Michael Portillo.
Hadrian
September 29th, 2008 8:52pm Report this commentI woke up this morning to find some rotter had broken into my garage - filled with books, I don't own a car- and bizarrely stolen my plastic bust of Sherlock Holmes...irreplaceable.
Point is with all this financial turbluence it's easy to forget one of the prime roles of government is to protect us from crime and actually punish crooks. Lots of 'ordinary' citizens are fed up to the teeth being assured by this deluded shambolic lot that they have crime under control. Now, it's high time the Tories reminded us that they are the true guardians of proper law and order and will properly stamp down hard on all anti-social, criminal activity, not just corporate greed.
Tiberius
September 29th, 2008 9:01pm Report this commentNo one finds fault with Osborne's speech, so let's divert attention to the crisis across the pond, then!
I took part in a Conservative Home survey some months ago, which asked which tax you would prefer to see reduced. I opted for council tax and seemingly so did many other people.
Perhaps the Tories listen to the public. Brown, of course, has been behind the doubling of council tax since 1997, and pensioners are probably the worst affected by this scandal.
Verity
September 29th, 2008 9:06pm Report this commentDow's recovering.
This was a bad deal. Almost as stupid as something Gordon Brown would think up. Oh, wait a minute ...!
Tiberius
September 29th, 2008 11:16pm Report this commentWell, TGF, I'm not taking water at the moment but for two reasons, one of which is because I find neat malt fights off a cold much more effectively.
JohnAnt
September 30th, 2008 12:40am Report this comment"And to top it off, only make the offer to councils who play ball with a Tory government in Whitehall and keep their own tax increases to 2.5%."
Frazer, the 'uncooperative' councils are not going to care how much their council tax goes up by. Their supporting majority voters in the great tower blocks don't pay it in any case, and, like Hatton in Liverpool they'd go out of their way to have a ding dong with a Tory government.
No, the way to do it is to empower local voters with a direct government bill that allows council tax payers to measure and cap their personal increase. That'd be localism all right!
Fergus Pickering
September 30th, 2008 3:34am Report this commentA plastic bust of Sherlock Holmes sounds like something from MontyPython and worthy of a poem. Hadrian, I mourn your loss. Tiberius, NEVER take malt neat. You take it with an equal measure of tap water. This is a Scotchman telling you this. Neat Scotch should be from Tesco's and probably straigt from the bottle.
Tiberius
September 30th, 2008 8:29am Report this commentThanks for the tip, Fergus. I may have a glass this evening in the interests of applied research of course.
Wight Tory
September 30th, 2008 11:31am Report this commentAhh Furgus, you have answered a question for me also. My local waters down the malt, but clearly they are educating me for the correct way it should be taken...
Hadrian
September 30th, 2008 5:31pm Report this commentBeing almost but not quite teetotal I never touch the uisge beatha/water of life, myself. But Sherlock's disappearance out of my garage has hit me hard..all day I've been eyeing people and places with suspicion and yearning for my old, deer stalked friend.
Anyone know where yoy can purchase a male mannequin's head? I need to replace my roving Baker Street lodger and maybe rig him up with some vicious eletrical current that'd not soon be forgotten by any repeat kidnappers...or would that end up with me in court?!
Back to top