TORIES OFF THE RAILS...

Vote Conservative and pay more taxes!

That's the rallying cry from young George "Nice but dim" Osbourne, the Shadow Chancellor. Yes, Georgie-boy is determined that should the CONservatives ever get back into power, "green" tax take will rise. He's looking at taxing us further on aviation, cars, carbon..

But wait a second, fear not. For George is going to Japan to ride on the magnetic test train they have in Tokyo. He reckons that we could have similar in the UK! You can just see it, can't you? I mean the UK has such an impressive record on the rails?!!!!! I can see one such high speed train, travelling at 360mph, speeding through Crewe station. (Not on the tracks, just through the station!)

Of  course apart from the fact that such a fancy as Osbourne imagines would never happen, there is the equally off-putting fact that vice-chairman of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Cliff Perry has claimed that such trains used too much energy to be considered a sustainable form of transport. The method "doesn't achieve fast journeys without an environmental cost", as the trains "consume an awful lot of energy".

How about putting a TAX on it - problem solved!

I may be a conservative by instinct, but when I see the floundering of this neo-liberal rabble led by Call Me Dave, I wonder if there is any merit in it ever getting back into power. The betrayal of a friend is always worse than that of an enemy, they say.

Comments

[Mardy Bum]

Perhaps this is "the strategy", David. Don the sheep's clothing for a while until you become electable again, and then let the crazies out of the closet.

[David Vance]

Mardy,

I think it's the opposite of that, funnily enough. Let the crazies try to get elected, and then when they dismally fail, purge every one of them!!!

[Mardy Bum]

David-

Very good! Doesn't look like it's working though. Cameron is making them electable and Brown will suffer from in-fighting and his closeness (in not demurring from any of his decisions rather than personally speaking) to Blair.

Whither policies eh?

[NRG]

The so called green taxes are reasonably transparent often on what people choose to spend their money on rather that what they have to spend their money on in contrast to, say, Gordon Brown's imprudent smash and grab raid on pensions.

Just unravelling the myriad inefficient invisible taxes labour has imposed on us will relive the burden but won't be seen as tax cuts.

[Mardy Bum]

It's stretching my memory but I seem to remember in the dim and distant past that the previous government also raised a tax or two (or twenty-two) in a less than fluffy way.

[Sean Fear]

Cameron's own poll ratings are very poor. Yougov and MORI both show him slipping from ratings of c.+ 20-30% at the start of the year, to c.-5% now.

What's keeping the Conservatives' poll rating relatively high is the sheer unpopularity of Labour.

[Henry94]

Labour's best bet would be to replace Blair with someone other than Brown.

[Mardy Bum]

Nobody is around of the necessary ability or stature Henry. That's the problem with the cult of personality that the PM engendered.

[David Vance]

Sean/Henry/Mardy,

Great points. I agree with them all.

Clearly, Cameron is being saved by the sheer awfulness of the Blair regime in its final months.

The MSM has done for Tony and Henry is right, anyone but Gordon would be clever, IF they had anyone.

Which is why Mardy's point is key. Blair is a cult. And a major one at that.

[Mardy Bum]

I do feel a bit sad for Brown as I think he's a decent and principled man (but then Blair was that once): if he broke ranks with Blair over policy he'd have to have resigned, so therefore assuming tight economic control over the spending departments was his only recourse to action. However, he has nowhwere to go now. Blair has seen to it that he will get the rockiest of lead-ins to a general election. Intellectually though I don't think any of the shadow cabinet can hold a candle to him.

[Sean Fear]

Blair has hollowed out the Labour Party. Its local government base has almost vanished; it's membership is 180,000 and falling, and it's bankrupt.

It would be hard for the Conservative Party not to lead in such a situation.

[Colm]

Mardy

Brown is not a decent and principled man. He's a blind dogmatist who can never admit when he has done something wrong or seek to rectify it as his disastrous taxing of pension funds has proved.

[Allan@Aberdeen]

Hmmmm. The power for Maglev trains - where does it come from?

[Ernest Young]

Mardy Bum,

'he's a decent and principled man'

Have to disagree on that one. What he did to the pensions of thousands, was nothing less than highway robbery. Robert Maxwell was an a angel compared to Brown, and he had the decency to take, what for him, was the honorable option...

'therefore assuming tight economic control over the spending departments was his only recourse to action'.

In the light of events I think that must some sort of misquote. The economy has rarely been so mismanaged as during the last decade, with overspends in any department you care to name, and stealth taxes being his only recourse.

'Intellectually though I don't think any of the shadow cabinet can hold a candle to him'

Haven't 'so-called' intellectuals done enough harm to this country, and you want more of the same? The man is at best a pseudo intellectual. - Hold a candle to him, a blow torch might do a better job...

[Peter]

Osborne is proposing to switch the tax burden away from income and wealth creation and towards polluting behaviour. Very sensible I'd say.