Wednesday 29 April 2015

Labour-Conservative 'grand coalition' negotiations progressing smoothly.

From The Daily Mail:

David Cameron today announces a Tory promise not to increase VAT, income tax or national insurance over the next five years.

The Prime Minister says the tax-free personal allowance should rise to £12,500 by 2020 while the 40p tax threshold will increase to £50,000. The Conservatives have repeatedly accused Labour of leaving the door open to freezing or lowering the 40p threshold, trapping millions more into paying the tax rate created to hit the rich.

Today Mr Balls insisted he would ensure the threshold rose at least in line with inflation every year and 'would like to go further'.

9 comments:

Random said...

Nobody is mentioning the elephant in the room. The budget deficit has been brought below the Current Account Deficit, so any further actions to reduce it will mean private sector must net borrow.
http://www.3spoken.co.uk/2015/04/uk-sectoral-balances-q4-2014.html?m=0

Random said...

"Today Mr Balls insisted he would ensure the threshold rose at least in line with inflation every year and 'would like to go further'."
That would be 0% then :)

Bayard said...

"Today Mr Balls insisted he would ensure the threshold rose at least in line with inflation every year"

Does that mean that, if we have deflation, he will bring it down?

Mark Wadsworth said...

R, you are comparing apples and pears.

B, do you really see a significant difference between what Balls and Camerosborne were saying on the topic of the higher rate tax threshold?

Bayard said...

Mark, not at all.

Interestingly, people have started saying, even on Radio 4, that the MPs of the two main parties are having talks about a "secret" Grand Coalition, to squeeze out these jumped-up fringe parties who think they can tell the powers that be what to do. They even had a Kiwi pol on saying the smae sort of thing has happened in New Zealand.

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, excellent, they read it here first :-)

All democracy is a confidence trick, and if Lab MPs believe that they'll end up in a Grand Coalition and vice versa, then it will just happen as if nothing had happened and as if this were the most normal thing in the world. They can hark back to the Grand Coalition of WW2 if they want to try and justify it.

Ian B said...

I've been cautiously suggesting we might get a "National Government" for, um, not sure, couple of weeks at least :) The SNP will destroy Miliband if they coalition. Coalesce. Whatever. Cameron and Miliband on the other might be able to get away with "we have put aside party tribalism for the good of the country and to ensure stability in a difficult time blah blah".

Bayard said...

"All democracy is a confidence trick"

Yes, whoever we vote "into power", our real masters are always the Establishment. You only have to compare and contrast what the Lib Dems were saying before and after they were coalitionised (i.e.suborned) to see that. A true minority government would represent a serious loss of control for the powers that be.

Mark Wadsworth said...

IB: "we have put aside party tribalism for the good of the country and to ensure stability in a difficult time blah blah".

That is exactly the sort of thing I expect to hear.

B, aha, but do you mean a real minority government or a secret grand coalition?