Yougov polls Tories 26% ahead!!!!!!!!!!

Is it premature to start chilling the bubbly after the latest yougov poll putting the Conservatives 26% ahead? This on top of Boris' victory & the local council gains.

I might think Cameron is a horrendous toff & PR man but anything is better than Brown and the Labour party. Hopefully Cameron will really roll back the state in favour of small government.

Bring on the general election - and Boris for Foreign Secretary in 4 yrs time! Hurrah!

10p tax rate - Darling & Cameron get it wrong

The uproar over the abolition of the 10p starting tax rate continues to gather pace. Quite rightly Labour MPs are giving Brown & Darling a good kicking over this. The problem is that they just don't get it. They think it is OK to take with one hand because they will just give it back by sticking more people on benefits & tax credits.

If Brown has achieved anything since 1997 it is to ensure that lots of tax accountants are getting richer. The tax system is ten times more complicated now than it was in 1997 thanks to tinkering and tax credits.

But I worry that Cameron doesn't get it either. The Chancellor is not actually wrong to abolish the 10% rate. He is wrong not to do so as part of a wider tax cutting agenda aimed at low and middle earners.

Abolishing the 10% rate simplifies the system. If it was accompanied by a hike in personal allowances to £10k no-one would complain. The Labour government has increased tax by the back door. No need to put up headline rates, when you can just stop the higher rate band level rising in the face of wage inflation. So thousands more people are now paying 40% tax compared to 1997 just due to the top band not being raised at a fair rate.

Cameron should say clearly that getting rid of the 10% band is correct but that it must be accompanied by a wider re-think of the tax burden. Just hitting the hard-working families and individuals is wrong wrong wrong & has nothing to do with social justice.

Shadow Cabinet reshuffles

It is looking likely that there is going to be some form of Shadow Cabinet reshuffle over the summer. Cameron needs to ensure that he surrounds himself with individuals capable of effecting real change as government ministers. Otherwise the first year of a Cameron government will be wasted (just like Blair's first term!).

As ever my concern is the lack of real quality at the top level of our political parties. When Cameron surveys his team he will see lots of people just like him - i.e. with little experience of the business world or the world outside Westminster. Just like old Daveo himself.

I can think of a handful of up and coming Tory MPs with real experience outside of politics. Shadow ministers like Justine Greening have real world & business experience and will be excellent in government. Others are ad men, lightweights, and the usual collection of political nerds who have gone from university, to working for the party, to parliament.

Please Mr C, lets have substance in your appointments and not a bunch of camera loving lightweights.

Breaking up the Beeb

So the Tories are suggesting that the TV licence fee should be split between the BBC, ITV & C4. This is either a half-baked idea, or the starting point for a real shake up of how we run public sector broadcasting.


If this is the only suggestion from the Cameroons, then it ain't very good. Michael Grade said that ITV didn't want a share of the licence fee (too much hassle with extra govt targets). And this ignores the real problem - which is the dominance of the BBC in communications.


Just take regional news. The BBC website pretty much precludes any local sites being set up to service local news needs. A local business just couldn't compete with the bbc web site.


Similarly children's TV - few independent producers can compete or even try to nowadays.


What we need is the BBC slimming down to its core remit, with the add-ons being sold off. They get £1bn a year from the public in a compulsory tax (i.e. licence fee). In the digital age with multi-channel platforms, this is an anachronism.


Wow - I've written about the Beeb without once mentioning that they are also a bunch of leftie bollinger Bolsheviks.