"If David Cameron had a pledge card..."

Then Tim Mongomery at ConHome thinks it should look like this:


*sigh*

1. He's confusing 'NHS spending' with 'health spending'. The NHS waste a third of their budget on PC crap, increasing the NHS budget will just see an increase in the amount spent on PC crap, that idea has been tested to destruction.

2. As to immigration, I am right-wing and believe in 'social cohesion'. The actual number of people we let in is irrelevant, what is important is that we let in immigrants who will fit in and make this country a better place (points system etc).

3. and 4. Tim's definitely going for the Home-Owner-Ist vote with 'abolition of Inheritance Tax for ordinary families' (which is code for exempting houses from IHT) and the 'two year freeze in council tax'. While I am against IHT in principle (it's a jealousy surcharge) and do not like the way Council Tax is designed (it's almost like a Poll Tax), let's not forget that the two taxes together only raise about 4% of what the government spends every year. Why not look at the really Big Bad Taxes like Employer's NIC or VAT, that between them raise about 20% of what the government spends?

My view happens to be that we should scrap both and replace them with a flat rate tax on property values (like Domestic Rates), but that doesn't appear to appeal to the Home-Owner-Ists either, of course. What they want is no taxes on land and property whatsoever, they don't care about deadweight costs or economic efficiency or anything.

5. Tinkering with the number of MPs and so on is a token political gesture and of no real relevance to anything.

*/sigh*