Promises, promises

Gordon Brown has spent the last four days promising this and promising that. But, in an almost carbon copy of his allegations about David Cameron, these promises have no substance. In all of his TV interviews Gordon promised to listen and learn, even though Andrew Marr himself accused him of offering nothing new.

Now, that is the problem. Gordon and his cronies have promised to listen to the electorate, but these promises are hollow. Nobody wants an extension of the 28 day limit on terror detention, but Gordon is going to continue with that policy; the tax credit system is flawed, but he will continue with that; and finally your average family is struggling with car and fuel taxes, but we will still have to swallow these increases.

So much for listening. These are just three of many issues that the electorate have real problems with, and the government is offering nothing new.

That brings me nicely on to the 10p tax row. Here we have again a promise by the government to compensate everyone affected by the tax change, through tax credits. Yes that flawed system that wants you to beg the government for some money back. But, like I said this is another promise that so far appears to have no substance, no details, just an undertaking by the government to do it. It was only a couple of days ago that lead rebel Frank Field MP called Alastair Darling's plans as "clear as mud". Have the plans become clearer? Of course not, in fact we just got another promise from number 11 that it will happen. Personally, I'm not sure that this will buy Frank off, not that it should unless the Labour whip manages to pin him down.

So when Gordon Brown next accuses David Cameron of having no substance during PMQ's, not only does the saying about a pot and a kettle spring to mind, but you can hardly blame Cameron for holding his cards to his chest. After all, if the policy is good this tired and useless government will only pinch it, like they did with inheritance tax.

Weakness, back downs and rolling over.

The announcement earlier this morning, by the government about their compensation package for the scrapping of the 10% tax break, is one of the most humilating episodes in recent times. Gordon Brown's leadership credentials are in tatters, he has no credibility left.

This whole row of the budget was his making, and his alone. It was gordon that scrapped the 10p rate in his last budget as Chancellor. It was Gordon that stood firm and said that there would be no change in policy. It was Gordon who had to plead with the PLP not to vote against the Finance Bill. It was Gordon that was forced to announce a compensation package to help the people that HIS budget would have left worse off.

The last week has shown that he is truely weak. When faced with a vote that he would have lost he backed down, he capitulated, and now looks vulnerable. Tony Blair never faced anything of this nature, because he wasn't a stubborn old "clunking fist" that didn't listen.

But it does stop there his leadership example of capitulation to try and avoid losing vote is followed by his subordinates. Gordon promised compensation to prevent a vote going against him, and Ken Livingstone this week handed a compensation package with little compensation to Metronet employees to prevent a tube strike costing him votes. The trend is there, and that is how Labour is governing under Brown's leadership.

What does worry me is that this show of weakness could be repeated yet again, this time in Europe. Remember those red lines in the Lisbon Treaty? Well, he said he would not back down over those, but then he also said he would not back down on the scrapping of the 10% tax rate.

However, it was Brown's PMQ's performance that was really telling. He tried to come out on the attack and make a back track sound like leadership. But David Cameron tore him to shreads, with Brown only being able to respond with claims of successes, all of which where in Blair's era. Gordon accused of not sticking to the central issues, but this is a major issue. Whether you support the government, or not, the one thing you want from a PM is strong leadership. I didn't like Blair, but even I will admit that he controlled a tight ship, Gordon's ship leak more than the Titanic.

So for now, the rebels have been bought off, but does anybody make out of that? Well, no. Yet again the only way the people affected by the tax increases will be able to see any money will be to beg for the money back through tax credits! What is it with this government and tax credits. they make the system so bueraucratic that the people affected don't apply, or by some technicality, get less than they deserve. How demeaning, instead of lower paid people instantly getting the money in their pay packets they will now have to go cap in hand, and beg for the money back.

Party of the people, my arse.

The cost of Brown's last tax!

As the new tax year begins the Conservatives have come up with this poster to highlight just how Gordon Brown's last budget as Chancellor is now going to cost us.


However, in the usual spin laden way that we have got used to under Labour, they are claiming that the majority of us would be better off thanks to tax credits. Yes, the very same tax credits that are so confusing to apply for that they are more of a deterrant.

It's nice to know that the party of the working man is still thinking about them. Well, thinking how much more they can screw out of them at least.

Brown broke the law

One of the most humiliating experiences for me as a parent, in having to apply for the government's tax credits for working families. To top the off you also have the constant worry that as you have to use a "government computer" to calculator your "award", that you will be paid too much money and will end up oweing the tax man more than you can afford.

So it was with great delight to read in this morning's Times, that Gordon Brown now has to face the humiliating prospect of having to return hundreds of millions of pounds that has been reclaimed by HMRC, in overpaid tax credits.

His over complicated system scares people off. The forms are a nightmare, the helpdesk always seems to have someone that has no grasp of reality working on it when I phone up. Which leaves you with that nagging feeling, have they ballsed it up. But it's the system’s complexity explains why so many families fall foul of means-testing rules and frequently face repayment demands. Familes are supposed to tell HMRC when their circumstances change and hand back any overpayments. Although, in reality as I have found out the person you tell at the end of the phone doesn't seem to listen, so when you do receive your revised award it already wrong. Which I why I always query it. The problem is thousands of families don't as they simply assume that the taxman has listened and worked it out correctly.

However, the amount of times that the taxman causes problems, or the wrong box has been filled in on the extremely complicated forms result in the overpayments, and a subsequent investigaion by the the taxman. But according to the report HMRC Officials actually broke the law by failing to tell claimants that their tax credit awards were under investigation in the first place.

So as a result of breaking the law, HMRC now face the prospect of having to pay back the overpayments to the families that they took them off.

Now, why they couldn't have kept the old system of using you tax code, and letting you have the money as you got paid is beyond me. But thanks to Gordon wanting to take the money off you and letting you beg for it back, he has created a whole lot of issues. An inquiry into this whole fiasco is the least that the opposition parties should demand.

Massaging Statistics - part two.

When will the government learn that the old cloak and dagger covering up of bad news, by the manipulation of statistics will always come back and haunt you. After all, on Sunday it was revealed that Gordon Brown had his knuckles rapped over tax credit stats.

However, today the Daily Mail (in a desperate attempt to appear impartial) have accused the goverment of covering up the numbers of unemployed in this country as being "nearly ten million people in Britain are out of work - more than six times the official unemployment rate".

Now, I may be cynical but even I don;t think that this is the real figure, I believe it to be much higher. But it does show at how good this governmenr is of spinning its way out of trouble with its massaged numbers.

The numbers game.

The phrase about an arse and an elbow springs to mind this morning after reading these two stories.

Firstly, Gordon Brown has been rapped by an independent watchdog for misleading parliament by using incorrect statistics. The Statistics Commission, part of whose task is to oversee the government’s use of figures, has upheld a complaint from a Tory MP, over the statements that he made about the numbers of people taking up tax credits.

The second is that Gordon Brown has pushed Labour into a 10-point lead, the biggest since he took over as prime minister.

Massaging statistics again? Or was the poll taken in his constituancy perhaps.

The pensions smoking gun is revealed

After ten years, and a two year battle with The Times, the smoking gun in Gordon Brown's pensions theft has finally been revealed.

It has been common knowledge for quite some time that the scrapping of the Dividend Tax credit has all but destroyed workplace pension schemes. Which, and let's be honest about this, is only going to effect working class people who rely on these schemes when they retire. So much for being the party of the workers.

However, it's the extent of Gordon's knowledge about the effect that his tax grab would have, that has been a bone of contention over the last decade. Personally I have always believed that Gordon won't even take a shit without thinking about how the treasury will make out of it, but others have believed that he could not have predicted the pensions blackhole. But, as revealed in today's Times, the Chancellor defied repeated warnings from his own officials about the potentially devastating impact that his £5 billion-a-year raid on pension funds would have, therefore and went ahead with it. The result of that decision, turned Britain's pensions system from being one of the best in the world to one of the worst. Which begs the question "What kind of Chancellor ignores that kind of advice"? Simple, a crap one.

Should we be surprised though. No, unfortunately it comes as no surprise whatsoever. After all this is the "Labour" Chancellor, that has consistantly hit the working classes, with stealth tax after stealth tax, and even blatantly raised taxes on the porrest in society in his last budget with the scrapping of the 10% tax band.

Although I have to laugh at the current bullet dodging by the treasury, who have so far blamed, David Cameron, the dot.com crash, the pension holidays in the 1980s and 1990s, and the rise in life expectancy as the causes of the pensions blackhole. I think they need to look a little closer to home to find the real cause.

Gordon Brown's true reputation is now clear for everyone to see, as the spin and deception unravels in front of him.

Fundamental differences

For the last week all i've heard come out of the Labour party conference is the statement from speakers that there is "fundamental differences between us and the tories". So i'd thought i'd investigate a few of them, and here is the first ten I could think of:

1. The tories have a clear vision for the future with the adoption of "Built to Last". Labour can't look past next summer.
2. The Tories want to lower taxes, where possible, to give money back to the people, Gordon Brown wants to tax you more, and then make you apply in writing for it back through tax credits.
3. The Tories want to restore the incentives to save for retirement, Labour has raided pension funds in a tax grab to the tune of millions.
4. The Tories want to improve effiency by scraping bureaucracy, government targets and league tables, Labour want to set targets and league tables for effiency savings.
5. Labour want id cards, and a database state, the Tories don't.
6. Labour want to set more targets and league tables for our schools, thus taking a school's focus away from teaching and go towards target hitting, the Tories wants to give freedom to schools to allow them to teach.
7. The Tories want to help the police tackle crime by reducing centralisation and targets to allow them to fight crime, Labour want to increase the age of criminal responsibilty thus making less crimes recordable, or punishable.
8. Under the last Tory government a criminal would serve "at least" two thirds of their sentence, under Labour they serve half (even less if they plead guilty).
9. The Tories want to improve the chances of first time buyers of getting their first home through affordable housing, Gordon Brown is unwilling to deal with rising house prices, and wants to increase stamp duty.
10. The Tories are united around David Cameron. Labour are spilt into factions.

This not an exhaustive list, so feel free to add to them in the comments.

It's their fault but you must pay up

Hard working families that were wrongly overpaid tax credits, because of admistrative cock-ups will have to pay back the money.

Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs (HMRC) stated that the reason for this decision is that the families themsleves are at fault for not noticing the overpayment errors.

The computer errors the have dogged HMRC resulted in over 600,000 families receiving too much money. But only a fraction of those have been successful in stopping HMRC's attempts to claw back the money. Hundreds of thousands of families are now facing having to repay large sums, often thousands of pounds, despite their pleas of innocence.

To use as a defence that "the families should have noticed the error" is to put it quite simply a disgusting. These families simply filled in their claim form and sent it in, it was the HMRC that decided how much they should receive in tax credits. The reason for the families not knowing what they should have received, is that they do not know how HMRC calculate the credits.

So, if you don't know how it is calculated, how do you know if it is wrong? and how does that make it your fault?

This is a national disgrace, hard working families are being punished for a government department's cock-up.

Remember this at the next election!