Political Penguin

Or lack of it to be more precise. I’m not quite sure what to make of the speech from the bit that I actually listened to. It was a heady mix of “the country’s gone to pot” with a bit of “here’s a few ideas we knocked up on the back of a fag packet that should be popular” thrown in for good measure. However what really struck me was not so much the lack of depth which I’ve become accustom to from Mr Cameron but moreover his distinct not mentioning a few little things that might be of interest to anyone living in a country with him as Prime Minister.

I was very interested in the line he was taking about a new world of change and freedom. The Facebook example was a classic. Perhaps I’m one of the old dinosaurs of politics that he’s trying to portray Labour as but Dave’s not exactly the best person to be talking about IT related matters but excuse me for being cynical. Facebook isn’t some part of a wider social revolution. Like all social networking it is merely an extension of interaction that takes place in the real world or at best a distraction. Mrs Penguin’s on Facebook, I’m not by the way. As far a I can tell, she uses it to find little games to play. A mate of mine once told me that Facebook’s only useful because it allows him to play Scrabble with his mates. Well yes, a nice little distraction and time waster, hardly the embodiment of a brave new world or is going to change the the future direction or our planet is it? Of course if you really want to know what Davey boy thinks about freedom and the Internet then just have a little read.

The next little bit that pricked up my ears was the comparison to our neighbours on the continent. The French, Spanish and Germans reducing their corporation tax. Now I’ll be honest in saying I don’t follow French or Spanish politics very closely but I do take a keen interest in what’s going on in Germany for obvious reasons.

Dave’s being a bit economical with the truth on this one. Yes, good old Angie’s knocked 9% off German business’s corporation tax, admittedly from a higher starting point but what Mr Cameron didn’t seem so keen to mention was what Mrs Merkel has also been up to. After all, knock tax of here, it’s going to have to go on somewhere else because the bills still have to be paid.

How about the increases in fuel duty? Yep, much as the Tories and their cohorts in various bits of the right-wing media and pressure groups will love having a pop at the Government over the increase on petrol duty here, they don’t seem too keen on leveling the same criticism at Mrs Merkel’s Government. Here it will be hard pressed families struggling to run the family motor because nasty old Gordon wants to take their money and hopefully we can pick up a few votes from disgruntled motorists but I can’t see the same being leveled at Angie.

Then there’s the 2% hike in VAT good old Angie introduced to plug the gaps in her budget deficit. VAT, as we all know is a wonderfully progressive tax that doesn’t hit the poorest in society hardest.

What this comes down to is a simple case of taking with one hand and giving with the other. I’ll do a bit more on stamp duty later in this post but it’s very simple and assuming that Gordon might nip off to see the Queen next week for a cuppa and a chat you can bet that like the last election, one of the core planks of any Labour campaign will be big banners with the deficit in the Tories spending plans.

They’re promising a lot but it’s uncosted so they’ve got a couple of options. Their current proposals financially benefit the better off so either a bigger burden of taxation will fall on the poorer in our society or they’re either going to have to borrow at unsustainable levels or cut back on services. Unsustainable borrowing’s probably out of the question even if it was a particular favourite of the Tories when they were last in power so it’s going to be cuts in services then. Which services is the question, but if anyone wants to have a guess at what goes first then we need to look no further than Tory run Walsall council to get a few pointers on where the Tories will hit first and yes, you’ve guessed it, the services that directly benefit the worst off in our society.

It’s a scary prospect but for anyone under any illusions that cuddly Dave’s turned the nasty party in a caring bunch of softies you only have to realise that all their announcements amount to robbing Peter to pay Paul, and Paul is considerably richer than Peter.

Lastly there’s this whole thing over stamp duty for first time buyers. Now I’ve been meaning to write something on this but let’s get it clear, first time buyers will be exempt from stamp duty on properties up to