Politics

Wednesday, 5th November 2008

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

All this is freighted with meaning for the Conservatives. Mr Cameron argues that the Tories need not talk much about tax, immigration or crime as they will always be trusted more on these issues. This is precisely what Mr McCain thought about tax cuts. In his determination to come across as a different beast to the rest of his unpopular incumbent party, he left key flanks undefended. His attempts to sell his (more genuine) tax cut message came across as insincere, whereas Mr Obama has for two years been calling for the burden to be lifted on 95 per cent of American families.

Mr Brown can certainly claim some ownership of the Democrats’ victory, in that many of his accounting tricks have been deployed in the forging of the Obama tax cut policy — chiefly his repackaging of welfare payments as ‘negative tax’. This allowed the Democrats to claim that their tax cuts would be directed at low-earners such as Joe the Plumber, a character introduced to the campaign by Mr McCain. ‘Joe’s cool,’ Mr Obama said. ‘I got no problem with Joe. All I want to do is cut Joe’s taxes. But Senator McCain isn’t working for Joe the Plumber. He’s working for Joe the Hedge Fund Manager.’ It is easy to imagine the Prime Minister salivating at this line of attack and making a variant of it his own in due course.

So in Britain we can expect tax credits to be given a new label, and the British public to be promised ‘tax cuts’ — which would amount to the Prime Minister’s old trick of having the low-paid fill in forms for the return of the money already taken from them in tax. As if in anticipation of this, Alistair Darling is talking about how the public can’t bear more burdensome taxes. And Mr Brown must be hoping that the Tories are still too traumatised by old battles to discuss tax cuts rationally; that they will continue to believe, as Mr McCain did, that wise conservatives never sell this message too hard, and do not have to.

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Hugh McLachlan

November 7th, 2008 10:56pm Report this comment

Politicians, like merchant-bankers, pull their resources.

paul hill

November 9th, 2008 11:37pm Report this comment

Problem is that Osbourne is not a gut tax cutter

Ben

November 10th, 2008 2:00pm Report this comment

...and the Tories will be left behind the curve AGAIN. Honestly, they always seem to be reacting to events not shaping them.

They slavishly follow Blair at just the time Blair becomes widely trashed, they ditch tax-cuts and embrace ever greater public spending - at precisely the time we enter a global recession.

A party that is terrified of its own shadow, which is paraonoid about its' opponents, and lacks the courage to stand up for what it believes in, will be treated with disdain and contempt by the rest of the country.

The Tories must get up off their knees and start making a robust and coherent case for the millions of people let down by this miserable government.

otherwise we'll have another 5 years of Gordon Brown. I think I'd expire.

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