Topic: | Re:Merchant Banker Toff£or's latest post | |
Posted by: | Richard Greenhough | |
Date/Time: | 11/08/09 16:17:00 |
"it's the haves versus the have nots" MPs and Labour peers versus ordinary working people, you mean ? Just how much have Mandelson, the Kinnocks and the K££ns made over the years from public funds while other people struggled to pay Labour's tax increases ? And yes, it was Gordon Bean who introduced the 10p tax rate. Here is what he had to say when he abolished it : “I think I should tell the House that 85 per cent of the benefits of the 10p rate go to higher-rate and basic-rate taxpayers, and that 11 million people, mainly the lowest-income people in the country, receive no benefit at all from it… We are determined to take action, because we are the party of fairness tackling poverty.” Sir Robbing Toff£or said : "I believe that I benefitted from the eight years in which it was operative". I suppose as a Merchant Banker you would have done. Given Bean's own words when he apparently saw the light on his tax rate, perhaps the Conservatives were right to oppose it in the first place. In fact its introduction and its abolition were both cynical political manoeuvres with the primary purpose of wrong-footing the Opposition, rather than for any real economic or social benefit. Sir Robbing Toff£or also said "..wasn't it a temporary measure.." No it wasn't. The introduction of a 10p starting rate was a commitment in the Labour Party's manifesto for the 1997 General Election; this stated that, “Our long term objective is a lower starting rate of income tax on ten pence in the pound" Funny how short-term Mr Bean's long-term objective turned out to be. |