If Labour is to beat Cameron, Brown must forge a new tax contract with the voters

DougS

Mr. Field: I thought you were going to actually propose something really useful like cutting extremely high taxes and really “decentralize” decision-making by allowing individuals to contract for services they need.

Shouldn't be surprised: outside of a few areas you're still a socialist, and at your age especially it's difficult to change.

The problem is the Labour Party, and the problem is socialism in contemporary society. There are, shall we say, "internal contradictions": It just doesn't work, and as we get further and further away from the kinds of large, basic industries and mass society that characterized Britain up through the 1970s that's becoming increasingly evident.

So . . . the "progressives" have turned to such nonsense as political correctness, pacifism, bizarre educational experiments -- you name it.

Your Labour Party governs in the name of the working class but harms, not helps, them; all the while it secretly despises many of their perceived qualities.

And . . . it gets along with the kinds of PC, trendy, luvvy nonsense that makes its middle class politicians/activists/rulers pleased with themselves.

All of this has been a disaster for Britain domestically and internationally, as this once-great country sinks ever further into the mire. Oh, I won't rehearse all the statistics about those on disability, how government debt has soared to pay for this government's programs, how education is a wreck, how multiculturalism in all its destructiveness is now so entrenched that it will be difficult to turn around, how wide-open immigration is changing the culture for the worse . . . and on and on and on.

You're still very much socialist and Labour, Mr. Field, and while I know you're conservatives "pet" Labour PM you're up to your 60+ neck in the waste and destruction that is slowly but surely being revealed in Britain.

In fact, it's seemingly (partially) sensible people like you who give a gloss of reasonableness to Labour as a party of government. It isn't; never has been and in all likelihood never will be.

Madeleine Sparkes

Great suggestions. It would be interesting to hear if Frank Field has any knowledge at all of what Gordon Brown thinks of these proposals.

Ian

What about the unintended consequences of offering £25K child support for the first two years? If I was a teenage girl, bored with school and with no career ambitions, I think single motherhood would look really rather attractive.

John Bull

Frank Field once again demonstrates his ability to think and act as that most unusual of creatures, the 'honest politician'.

I cannot claim that I am by natural instinct a follower of Franks leftish tendencies, but openly admit to admiration for his clear thinking.

Gordon is unlikely to espouse Frank's serious proposals - that would require some form of decision-making which appears anathema to Gordon.

Likewise David 'call-me-dave' Cameron will be fearful of grasping an idea patently 'old labour' even though its positive concept should appeal to any progressive mind.

That perhaps a huge number of teenagers will abuse such a system for all it is worth, is to be expected, but given careful documentation and used as case-examples to educate the younger ones, their stupidity can at least become the foundation of learning common sense if not mathematics !

Worth following up Frank - well done !

Mitch

As a working class bloke with no kids(my choice) I object to being used as a cash machine to finance your governments hare brained schemes.Why should people be paid to breed? if you cant afford em dont have em.

Pete

Ian's right.
It's an incentive to breed. Might have mileage if it was restricted to those who were married though - but that would doubtless infringe someones "human rights" or be discriminatory against the feckless and irresponsible.
Anyway, once the feckless teens had spent the £25k on booze, drugs, fags etc. (to no benefit to the child), they'd come cap- in-hand back to the state and, how could the state not help innocent babies? We'd end up paying once more.

David

What makes me feel so depressed is that far to many witless dolts (eg Mrs. Ian Dale) think that Frank Field is a tory at heart.

Frank is still just a commie tool stealing and spending other peoples money.

Mike T

Mr. Field,

As a working class Tory, I see very little wrong with your proposals, a de-centralisation of the state to communities is long overdue.

Your proposals though, radical for a centre-left party in the UK, should be meat and potatoes to a centre-right party like the Conservatives.

Together with the social justice work being defined by Iain Duncan Smith, this represents the best opportunity to improve our society in a generation.

However, I am puzzled, Mr. Field I find you to be a rare politician one of conviction, clarity of thought and honesty.

Why don't you cross the floor and join the Tories?

Ian C

Frank's solutions sound good but they are little more than a sticking plaster to the problems. They are treatment of bad societal symptoms not, which is what Cameron has to come up with, long term cures that will result in such palliative measures eventually being unnecessary. That is where the debate needs to be Frank, this is shutting the stable door. Yes, there are immediate problems that need resolution and some of your ideas are better than current practice, but we have to have far more radical thinking on how and what government provides and what is reasonable to ask the ever-decreasing productive part of the economy to pay for.

TDK

The idea of generating some sense of personal responsibility by creating a fix sum of welfare that is flexible in its consumption is merit worthy. The test of success will come when the first person, who has misspent all their entitlement comes back and asks for more. they will no doubt have a plausible sorry tale. For your policy to succeed you need to turn them away.

I can't believe that any socialist would actually do that.

Talia

"benefit and tax credits now amount on average to almost £100,000 of tax-free income for each child"?
Excuse me will I puke

john

I have long admired Frank Field's level-headed dedication to social policy, but with one political constituency voting for public waste and the other for private greed, has our culture ever had any room for constructive thinking?

Craig R

I'm with Talia on this one. £100,000 per child? Well that explains where my pay cheque keeps going each month.

That said, I wonder if there is some sense in som of thse ideas. As people have picked up, the maternity one is the most controversial, but could you tie entitlement to the option to contribution, so it was only an option if you'd worked for a couple of years first?

Of course, if he was really keen on individual ownership, he'd advocate raising the personal tax threshold and removing the labrynth of tax credits and complications. Then we could actually keep some of our own money and decide how to spend it, rather than having the state do that for us. But that's why he'll never cross the floor to the Tories, he places too much emphasis on "state programmes"...

Harry Osbourne

Frank
The party that takes its hand out of my pocket, and stops its arrogant and overbearing belief that it can spend my money better than I can, is the one that will earn my vote.

Steve Lee, London

Mr field, can you not see that the vast majority of all violent offenders in this country are children born to products of the Welfare State – handing over a bounty to Women (often no more than Children themselves) for having a child just further encourages those least equipped to be parents to out-breed everyone else. The welfare state IS the problem – is has converted the working class into the welfare class. The so called middle classes are now the working class – they live hand to mouth with no savings thanks to the crippling taxes in this country – all the while being robbed, burgled and beaten up by the very people they are taxed to death to support. Time to scrap the welfare state replacing it with generous income tax allowance (transferable to MARRIED partner) of say 15K. Think the unthinkable? I can – can you?

Herbert Thornton

Brown must "forge" a new tax contract with the voters?

Judging by the contract with the voters to hold a referendum on Europe, isn't the word "forge" absolutely apropos?

I wonder if Frank realised that when he wrote it?

Ray morris

Mr Field. You were very quickly got rid of way back in the early days of Tone' because you suggested that people had to be responsable for thier actions. Now ...if you are asking Flash to move away from just throwing the mulla about and a bit of thought go into how we go about it then I am afraid you have got as they say NO CHANCE
Flash doesn't live on our planet and hasn't got a clue about ordinary working poeople's lives. how can he have? Brought up in Scotland for a start then never having done a job.How do we vote for these people?? Dave' is a bit the same but I'm voting for them because he dose seem a bit more like one of the human race