This morning I understand that the Conservatives will take property up to £1m in value out of the inheritance tax net and pay for that by reducing pensions tax relief for those earning over £150,000 a year.
Labour on the other hand has spent the day telling us that they have worked out all their spending plans and claimed that the economy is safe in their hands.
My family roots are very much working class; in my head I am still working class (I go to work everyday- I know it doesn’t mean that anymore!) but I have voted Conservative all my life because I thought they were the party for people who were aspirational.
My parents gave me what I needed – an education (State) and a culture that work, works.
I want the very best for my children and grandchildren and don’t need any politicians to tell me how to do that. All they need to do is create an economy and society that encourages work, enterprise and self-sufficiency.
So who should I vote for?
I have a shopping list but I honestly can’t see one political party delivering on the whole package.
-I want a low inflation, low interest rate economy not mired in unsustainable debt that ends up being dumped on our children and grandchildren.
-I want that economy to generate all the tax we need to pay for the essentials but I don’t want it to be distributive I want it to be aspirational, earn more and pay your tax due;
-I do want a welfare state that looks after those who cannot look after themselves, what I don’t want is a welfare state that looks after those who are too lazy to get up and go to work;
-I do want a National Health Service but I don’t want a government who uses it as a political pawn and claims that the solution to better health care is to throw more money at it. I want the NHS to sort out its own mess and become more efficient (IT system anyone?!);
-I do want an effective Police service not one so wrapped up in bullying political correctness that it surveys how many copies of Charlie Hebdo I a Newsagent has sold!!
-I want our children to better educated but successive governments seem to think the only way to do this is interfere with the teaching professionals who know better and to keep targeting and assessing them. I want a government that will leave the education sector alone for five years at least;
-I want us to be able to protect ourselves as a Nation but I don’t think that needs to be done by spending £100bn on four submarines. The threat is more likely to come from extremists than from nuclear powers. I do though accept we need a deterrent against men from Russia who like to pose with their shirts off;
-I want us to be “greener” and pollute less, protect the environment more and maintain our green fields;
-I want there to be enough housing for those who need it but only where there is an infrastructure (transport, health, education etc) that can support it. I know people want to live in the South East of England but there isn’t enough room. So I want a government that will create jobs and homes in the rest of the UK;
-I want our transport system to be efficient but seriously £50bn (it will probably be double that) to speed up trains between London and Manchester for maybe a couple of hundred thousand people – we can solve world hunger for a couple of years with that amount of money!
-And you will not be surprised to learn that I want a government who will “butt out” on pensions and restore some semblance of consistency to the pensions tax system;
So my question is “Who on earth should I vote for?”
