Mike's Columns in the Portsmouth News
Labour have stopped listening!
Last week, the Labour MP for Portsmouth North, Sarah McCarthy-Fry described the recent local election results as “very disappointing” for her party. She was right! This year is the first that I can remember when no Labour councillors at all were elected in Portsmouth.
Of course the scrapping of the 10p income tax rate had a large part to do with it. Sarah said that it was never the intention to penalise the low paid but clearly if you double the rate at which people start to pay income tax that is exactly what you do. And I am surprised that a woman who is a qualified chartered accountant did not realise that!
Last week, the Chancellor introduced a partial compensation package. There are still major problems though. Over one million people will still be worse off. The Government is having to borrow £2.7 billion to fund it. And it is unclear what will happen next year – more borrowing or higher taxes?
In September 2005, following the unfortunate deaths of Mo Mowlam and Robin Cook I wrote “that they both knew that the Conservatives paid the electoral price for becoming out of touch with ordinary people. Now Labour seem to be going the same way. To avoid the Tories’ fate, they must now deliver on public services and abolish unfair charges and taxes.”
The problem about the 10p tax rate is that it is just one example of how Labour have stopped listening in the past few years. They have closed local post offices. They have failed to invest the extra money for the NHS effectively. And they have not tackled the housing crisis – pouring billions into the pockets of private landlords through housing benefit, while council house tenants in Portsmouth will have £100 million taken away from their rents over ten years. The local elections saw progress for the Lib Dems – making gains over and above our previous high water mark four years ago when the same seats were last elected. It is clear, therefore that increasingly people are now turning to the Lib Dems for high quality local services, fair taxation, and real action to tackle global warming.
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