October 2007 Archives

DOWN here at Westminster, a scurrilous anti-North campaign is rumbling that needs to be stamped on quickly. I will try to do my bit.

Two things have kicked off a new obsession, in parts of the London media, that hard-working Southern taxpayers are being fleeced to bankroll Labour’s heartlands.

The first was the publication of figures appearing to show that a typical Southerner pays a lot more to the Treasury than he or she receives back in services.

So, in the South-East, the average tax bill is £1,853 above government spending in that region – while, in the North-west, there is a “gain� of £1,732 per person.

When it comes to health, spending per head in the South was found to be almost 8% lower than the average of £1,281 – and 14% lower than in the North.

The second factor is the realisation that Gordon Brown’s Cabinet is choc-full of Scots and Northerners and starved of MPs representing seats in the South. It is difficult to know where to start in slapping down these “It’s grim down South� claims – there are just so many lines of attack.

First, those tax figures. The reason why average tax bills in the South are higher is because many more people pay the 40% top rate – ie, they are richer. It’s called progressive taxation.

A fairer comparison would be the tax/spend balance for average taxpayers in North and South, which would reveal a gap far less dramatic.

Second, a large proportion of government spending is on health, where it is a flagship Labour policy to close the shocking North-South “health gap�.

Presumably, these critics are happy for the scandal of Liverpool women dying a staggering eight years younger than their peers in leafy Kensington and Chelsea to continue?

Furthermore, last month, the Crossrail project to better link London from west to east was promised £6bn of government cash – while the likes of Merseytram receive nothing.

And don’t forget the £9bn being pumped into the Olympics – in London – while £160m is snatched back from museums and galleries around the country to pay for the Games.

I’m running out of space, but perhaps the biggest insult is that this “Southerners fleeced� idea comes just weeks after Gordon Brown handed out £1.5bn to ease inheritance tax bills.

Where do almost all the gainers live? In London and the South, naturally.

BEFORE coming to Westminster in the 1997 Labour landslide, Chester MP Christine Russell worked for a mental health charity, as she recounted in a Commons debate.

She told MPs: “I recall how challenging life was in the 1880s . . . �. Everyone agreed Ms Russell looks very well for her age.

THE abrupt demise of Sir Menzies Campbell proves that – in politics – it's not what you say, it's how you say it.

Who doubts that the Liberal Democrats, under his leadership, have set the policy agenda in recent years – on tax, the environment, inequality and, of course, Iraq?

No wonder poor old Ming limped back to Edinburgh in disgust, after being forced to fall on his sword on Monday. Who can blame him?

But the truth is that, at 66 going on 76, Sir Menzies simply never cut it in the Commons chamber or the TV studio, and seemed a diminished figure after becoming leader.

I will never forget the Prime Minister's Questions when he raised the issue of pensions, only to be cut short by a cruel shout of “Declare your interest!� from the Labour benches.

Similarly, the rock music obsessive in me recalls that, while David Cameron declared himself a Morrissey fanatic, Sir Menzies described himself as
"from the Bill Haley generation".

Rarely before has an event that came as a shock at 6.30pm on Monday appeared so inevitable and necessary just a few hours later.

I was struck by how even Southport MP John Pugh – a strong Sir Menzies supporter – immediately said, with obvious relief, that he had done the right thing.
The question for the Lib-Dems now is whether a younger, more dynamic leader can deliver a bigger bang for the impressive buck of many Lib-Dem
policies? It will not be easy.

Iraq, the issue that sent Labour voters to the Lib- Dems, has been neutralised by Gordon Brown, while David Cameron's “Vote Blue, Go Green� message is winning back Tory defectors.

What's particularly unfair is that popular Lib-Dem policies – on inheritance tax, “green� flight taxes and taxing the “non-doms� – are quickly pinched by their opponents.

However, there is still a gaping hole where Tory policies on schools and hospitals should be, issues where many voters believe Labour has failed to deliver on the higher taxes paid.

This is surely where the new leader – presumably
either Home Affairs spokesman Nick Clegg or
Environment spokesman Chris Huhne – must
concentrate his efforts?

Success would also help Gordon Brown – because voters returning to the Lib-Dems would hit the Tories hard in the South.

WHO says there is little choice in politics these days. I mean, just look at the credentials of the two front-runners in the Lib-Dem leadership race.
There's Mr Huhne, a former journalist and Euro-MP who went to ultra-posh Westminster School, up against Mr Clegg, an ex-Euro MP and journalist, who, er, attended Westminster School.

I BELIEVE Gordon Brown can bounce back from his rapid and remarkable slide from master political strategist into red-faced blunderer.

But, at the same time, the fiasco of the general election that wasn’t guarantees that his Prime Ministerial style can never be the same again.

What died at the weekend, along with a November 1 poll, was Mr Brown’s carefully-crafted – but extraordinary – image as a father of the nation, somehow floating above party politics.

For three months, the man once known as “Red Gordon�, succeeded in persuading some of his old political enemies that he had changed into a new type of leader – above all, a moral one.

Junior Tories were appointed as his advisers, as if someone who had waited 13 years to get to No.10 was now going to listen to Conservative advice.

We had the rub-your-eyes spectacle of Margaret Thatcher coming to tea and Mr Brown suggesting she “perhaps� could have done more about unemployment. All 3.1m of it. This charade – not too strong a word, I think – culminated in the Prime Minister not even mentioning the Tories in his “son of the manse� party conference speech.

Clever politics, of course, but it could not last. How could it, when Mr Brown – far from being above party squabbles – has spent a lifetime trying to grind the Tories into the political dust?

Now, after failing to bang down the lid on the election bottle until it fizzed over, the Prime Minister is exposed as the calculating politician he is – and that they all are.

The Tory taunt of “Bottler Brown� – journalists were given Newcastle Brown bottles with Gordon’s smug smile on the front – has a limited shelf-life. No-one likes a boaster.

What will endure is the impression that the Prime Minister, in trying to trump the Tory conference by jetting to Iraq to announce a troop withdrawal, can spin like Tony Blair.

Furthermore, not a single person will believe Mr Brown’s claim that he would have scrapped the election even if on course for a 100-seat majority. No sign of a “moral compass� there.

It all adds up to normal politics resuming – with Labour pitting its commitment to schools and hospitals against the Tories’ eye-catching tax cuts.

That is a battle Labour has won before – and which it can win again.

GORDON BROWN is not the only one in trouble. What price Menzies Campbell to survive through to the next election, now it is 18 months away?

Unhappy Liberal Democrats could not unseat their under-performing leader when an election was just weeks, or months away. It’s not any more.

TO UNDERSTAND the scale of the Tory panic here in Blackpool, we need only look back to David Cameron’s last official visit to the seaside.

One year ago in Bournemouth, the Conservative leader repeated over and over that there would be “no unfunded, up-front tax cuts� on his watch.

At the time, Mr Cameron was ramming home the message that he was bravely facing down his right-wingers and marching onto the centre ground.

Twelve months on, with an election looming, mouthwatering – and poorly-funded – tax cuts are being tossed around like confetti in the Blackpool breeze.
Of course, the Conservatives insist all the goodies – on inheritance tax, stamp duty and families – are prudently matched by fresh revenue-raising, but no-one should be fooled.

On every measure, the money will flow out of the coffers of a Tory Treasury far faster than it will flow in.

Take yesterday’s wildly-cheered pledge to spend £3.1bn freeing the wealthy winners of the housing boom from paying Inheritance Tax on the proceeds.
The proposal to tax the non-domiciled uber-rich is very welcome and long overdue, but, if it offered such easy pickings, surely Gordon Brown would have done it years ago.

It is impossible to see how the Conservatives can recoup £3.1bn from the elusive non-doms – leaving Labour smelling blood and lining up those “Tory spending cuts� posters.

Similarly, the Tories are determined to offer tax breaks to encourage marriage – despite ditching many of the “green tax� proposals touted to fund them.
Ditto the plan to boost tax credits for couples by raising £3bn from cracking down on the 2.7m incapacity benefit claimants.

These are the long-term jobless – many in Merseyside – that Labour has spent a decade trying, and mostly failing, to get back into work. It simply cannot be done quickly.

What this week’s blitz of policy pledges shows is that Mr Cameron, staring election defeat in the face, has gambled all on going back to basics – tax cuts and more tax cuts.

Regardless of whether the sums add up, he is determined to put clear blue water between the main parties. If nothing else, it makes for a more interesting election – because it offers voters a clear choice.

THIS IS almost certainly our last visit to Blackpool, as the Tories join Labour in rejecting its ageing hotels in favour of Manchester – and, maybe, Liverpool.

No more batterings by Irish Sea storms and no more of those extraordinary slot machines, offering “crotchless knickers for just £1�.
My favourite Blackpool moment was when I unsuccessfully requested brown bread with my
scrambled egg in the morning. “We just can’t get it,� the waitress explained.