"Tory claims on savings all smoke and mirrors", says Richard Allanach
January 30, 2005 9:26 PM
All three parties are fighting a war of words on tax and spend. The Liberal Democrats want to help residents in Rugby and Kenilworth find their way through the claims and counter-claims.
All three parties have agreed to package of savings in the way government is run which amounts to £22 billion pounds per annum. This is sometimes called the Gershon review.
On top of this the Conservatives are arguing for a reduction of a further £13 billion which they would use to reduce the national debt, some unspecified tax cuts and a few extra Conservative spending priorities. The Conservative's reductions are sometimes called the James Review.
The Liberal Democrat say that a lot of their plans are either wrong or misguided. One wrong Tory claim is that they would save money on the "30 month scheme" operated by the Department for Agriculture. But Labour have already announced that they will axe this scheme so there is nothing further the Tories can save
A misguided Tory policy is the proposal to cut the help given to getting unemployed people back to work by about £1.6 billion.
The Liberal Democrats also plan to save £5 billion on top of the Gershon savings and this money will be redirected to our spending priorities. Some of the most important savings and new programmes are shown below.
SAVINGS:
Scrap Child Trust Fund.
Scrap ID card plans.
Scrap politicians trying to pick industrial winners and abolish the Department for Trade and Industry.
Don't order the final tranches of Euro-fighter aircraft.
Axe 41 ministers and their spin doctors. Abolish the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (John Prescott's office).
NEW PROGRAMMES:
Invest in more early years teachers.
Invest in an extra 10,000 police on our streets.
Raise pensions for the over 75s and take a million pensioners out of the poverty trap.
Meet our promise to the United Nations to give more help to people in developing countries.
Free off-peak travel for pensioners and people with disabilities.
In addition we have one and only one proposal to increase the tax burden. We propose to charge a 50 pence in the £ rate of income tax on incomes in excess of £100,000 a year. We would use the £5 billion this would raise to:
a) Scrap university tuition fees
b) Stop pensioners having to sell their homes to pay for personal care
c) Help ease the introduction of a local income tax. The local income would replace Council Tax. Council Tax would be scrapped.
What would you like to do next?
-
Subscribe for updates
Follow the party's activity on...
- Twitter:
- Liberal Democrats
- Facebook:
- Liberal Democrats
- YouTube:
- Liberal Democrats