Mike's Columns in the Portsmouth News
Dance to the Lib Dems' Tune
The end of this week sees the Lib Dems kicking off the party conference season. If a week is a long time in politics then a year is an eternity. And the twelve months since the last party conferences have seen Gordon Brown’s reputation falling like a stone as he first dithered over whether to call a General Election, then hesitated over Northern Rock and was finally slow to act over the economic down-turn and the housing crisis.
Lib Dems in Parliament and the Lib Dem run City Council have been campaigning for many months for more powers and assistance for councils to buy houses and help home owners who are struggling with their mortgage
So last week’s announcement of a package of measures to help the housing market was welcome as far as they went. But it should have been more, earlier as the lack of action has allowed a crisis to develop in the housing market. And new figures underline this with the Halifax reporting a fall in house prices of over 12%, the number of houses sold having halved and new mortgage approvals down by 71%. It also seems the Government still hasn’t cured its penchant for over-hyping things with their stamp duty proposals having a third the effect they said they would.
Under Labour, the tax burden has fallen more and more heavily on those with middle and below average incomes while the rich have escaped – benefiting from tax breaks. So the Lib Dems will be outlining proposals at our party conference to give hard-working families who are struggling at the moment, a significant tax cut – also helping the economy.
As Brown’s reputation has fallen, that of Vince Cable, our treasury spokesman has soared – and it has also been revealed that he is a rather good ballroom dancer! Indeed so much so on both counts that the Times noted that he was “as deft at articulating the concerns of Middle Britain as he is at the paso doble in the ballroom.”
May be the Government in the future should dance a little more to the Lib Dems’ tune!
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