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EXPRESS COMMENT

LABOUR IS BACK TO ITS OLD GAME OF BASHING THE RICH

TRUE COLOURS: Labour is back to its old game

Tuesday November 25,2008

By Stephen Kahn, City Editor

Comment Speech Bubble Have your say(3)

LOVE him or loathe him, when Tony Blair was at No 10 the Government held firm to its business-friendly posture, though, in practice, frequently falling well short of its boast.

There was the raid on pension funds and the misguided sale of gold reserves – both Gordon Brown initiatives – yet more or less the charade held together.

But now in the Square Mile there is a general recognition that the Prime Minister’s true colours have emerged – Labour is back to its old game of bashing the rich.

The danger is that, having established the precedent, the next time round could see middle-income earners hit – not just by higher National Insurance contributions but increased income tax rates too.

Alistair Darling stood at the Dispatch Box outlining the Pre-Budget Report yesterday afternoon but the sentiments were those of Gordon Brown.

A hike to 45p in the £ for those earning more than £150,000 if Labour wins the next general election will raise a comparatively modest sum. The same goes for restricting the personal allowances of the better paid.

This is gesture politics. In exchange for what Brown prays will be vote-winning headlines he has signalled to the world’s decision makers and job generators that when the going gets tough, Labour will put the squeeze on those at the top of the business tree.

The Government hopes you will approve. But having established the principle, tax increases for those lower down the income scale could be next.

This tax policy “creep” is what worries the world’s money men and women as they daily review where to make job cuts.

The UK is now seen as a place where you can’t be certain a few years out whether you will get clobbered with extra taxation.

This means they are less likely to invest here in the long-term and more likely to cut back in the short-term.

As Alistair Darling put the final nail in the coffin of Labour’s “no more boom and bust” pretensions, there was a consensus in the Square Mile that the Report would not head off the worst of the recession.

The Prime Minister quotes international precedent, so he will know the cash he is putting into the economy is likely to prove insufficient to do the job.

If he and his neighbour at No 11 had not been so profligate in the good years, there would be more cash to help us through the tough times. Taxpayers will have to make up the shortfall.

LOOK BACK AT PREVIOUS ONES

02.12.08, 3:25pm

Looking back over previous Labour governments, no matter what they do it always goes belly-up in the end and someone has to sort out the mess where the people have to get by best way they can. Labour never leaves any money in the kitty , only debts.

• Posted by: Maggie • Report Comment

LABOUR IS BACK TO ITS OLD GAME OF BASHING THE RICH.

26.11.08, 5:14pm

Are the ' rich' the Johnathon Ross's, R Brant's,
The wide boy bankers, the fat cats, celebrities by the bucketful, etc, etc,......?
Ok in my book...... Max wage £250,000, above this go self employed, start a business Look after the poor, the third world, the third world here in UK as well as overseas.
Rebuild, expand the rail and canal networks.
Canals for fresh water storage, stocking fish, tourism, leisure, transport, flood prevention, asthetic.....! 21st C. Tropical rainforests, coral reefs, polar bears, mamals, bumble bees..

• Posted by: juan01 • Report Comment

LEOPARD AND SPOTS

26.11.08, 9:31am

So what's new? These cretins have been busy flushing our country down the toilet for the last eleven years, and just before it goes, they'll jump ship for well paid positions in Brussels or the 'rubber-chicken-circuit' in America (a la Tony B-Liar) It's not even that they are merely venal....they are also inept, incompetent, stupid, immoral and totally out of their depth. Their only recourse is to unveil a 'New Initiative' every few weeks to take the public's minds off the last failed debacle

• Posted by: Rafer • Report Comment