Hello

Hello. Been meaning to do this for a while. The New Year and an imminent election seem to be good reasons to get started. As I say in my profile I am disillusioned with party politics in the UK at the moment so I will be musing on ways to improve this and hopefully some of the opportunities that may come up during the election. I am worried about some of the right wing tendencies in the Lib Dems at the moment so will be exposing those where necessary but also praising them where appropriate e.g. the new tax policy.

"We propose to raise the threshold at which people start paying income tax from current levels to £10,000, cutting the average working age person’s income tax bill by £700 and cutting pensioner’s income tax bills by £100. These plans will mean that almost 4 million people on low incomes will no longer have to pay any income tax at all."

I am however most worried about the Conservatives winning the next election. I am old enough to remember how awful the last Tory government was and never want to see its like again.

A good place to start then is something that Lord Tebbitt said this week. (I cannot believe that the first post I make on here is going to be quoting that old expletive deleted). On his blog he said

"And I hate to say it, but only one party leader seems to have grasped that, if you construct a system where unskilled people are worse off by taking a job than by staying on welfare, they remain trapped in poverty – and that is Nick Clegg. Lord knows, Frank Field and Iain Duncan Smith spelled it out in words and figures that only a simpleton could fail to understand, but the two main parties are unwilling to bite on the bullet and commit themselves to raising the income tax threshold from £6,475 to something like £10,000 or £12,000."

One of the biggest mistakes Labour made over the last few years was to get rid of the 10p tax band. This policy immediately reverses the damage, gives lower paid people more incentive to work, goes some way to alleviating poverty and gives loads of middle income people a shot in the arm in these difficult times. Well done Nick and of course Vince.

I will also be posting about the environment and transport as they are two of my passions at the moment and they are inevitably intertwined with each other and of course politics.

Any feedback, even if negative gratefully received.