Conservatives

[iSon]

Its been made very clear, the price of Petrol is going up because the price of the pound is falling and the pound is falling because the markets fear a hung parliament, and no one being able to sort out the debt.

But voted still have not forgiven the MP's for the past year worth of scandal. I can see BNP, greens, UKIP ( Nigel bloke winning the speakers seat) just to get the wind up the mps.

Nigel Farage is wasting his time standing in the speaker's seat - the speaker is expected to get 69% of the vote, while Farage will only muster 20%.

The BNP will get no more than 1% of the vote in the areas where they're standing, which is about the same as The Jury Team normally gets.

The Greens are on course to win Brighton with 48% but they'll struggle to get 1% anywhere else.

The BNP may only poll around 1% of the national vote, but I think you'll find in constituencies where they stand they tend to get anything up to 10% of the vote. The same goes for UKIP, independents and so on. The reason they don't record the same "success" in the national vote is because they don't field a candidate in every constituency.

I think it's fair to say that many people will be making use of the protest vote and not voting for any of the main stream parties which could result in the fringe parties receiving a larger share of the vote, but I don't think we'll see any significant upsets as a result of this.

[Chie]

"We will safeguard Britain’s credit rating with a credible plan to eliminate a large part of the
structural deficit over a Parliament."
Where is the credible plan?

http://www.conservatives.com/Policy/Manifesto.aspx

We will start by cutting a net £6 billion of wasteful departmental spending in the financial year 2010/11. In addition, we will make the following savings:

• freeze public sector pay for one year in 2011, excluding the one million lowest paid workers;

• hold a review to bring forward the date at which the state pension age starts to rise to 66, although it will not be sooner than 2016 for men and 2020 for women;

• stop paying tax credits to better-off families with incomes over £50,000;

• cut government contributions to Child Trust Funds for all but the poorest third of families and families with disabled children;

• cap public sector pensions above £50,000;

• cut Ministers’ pay by 5 per cent, followed by a five year freeze; and,

• reduce the number of MPs by 10 per cent. Over the course of a Parliament, we will cut Whitehall policy, funding and regulation costs by a third, saving £2 billion a year, and save a further £1 billion a year from quango bureaucracy.

I'd say that's a pretty credible plan, although I think public sector pay should be frozen for two years and the minimum wage frozen for three years. I also think VAT on luxury indulgences* should be increased to 20% and stay there. I don't see why it should always be 17.5% when wages have increased so much over the last 13 years.

*Products that contain alcohol or chocolate, perfume/EDT, new clothes, restaurant cuisine, computer games, DVDs, sofas and anything else that isn't necessary to live.

[Nick Harvey]

Products that contain alcohol or chocolate, perfume/EDT, new clothes, restaurant cuisine, computer games, DVDs, sofas and anything else that isn't necessary to live.

So when did you become a naturist then, Chie?

Or is your part of the country so consumed with Global Warming that you don't need any clothes?

[Gavin Scott]

VAT at 20%? Good god. That's one way to stop people spending money. VERY helpful to make sure we come out of a painful recession, chie.

Cover of the Scotsman this morning (despite its peculiarly positive undertones for the tories) reveals that Cameron is not content with plagiarising Nixon - he's gone the whole hog and is now using Kennedy's "ask not what your country can do for you..." line.

Is this hollow man going to run the country on the basis of "re-tweeting" better men that came before?

[barcode]

Toires and VAT are never trusted. it was those daft bugger who put VAT on electric and Gas bills in the first place. then labour forced it down to the lowest level possible : 7.5% blooldy EU rules

[all new Phil]

Cover of the Scotsman this morning (despite its peculiarly positive undertones for the tories) reveals that Cameron is not content with plagiarising Nixon - he's gone the whole hog and is now using Kennedy's "ask not what your country can do for you..." line.

Is this hollow man going to run the country on the basis of "re-tweeting" better men that came before?

To be fair, the whole Conservative ideology is based on small government and the Kennedy line fits in with this theme. Admittedly, the whole theme of the manifesto and their pledges is a bold direction to take, and I'm not sure it will resonate with the electorate like they hope, but it is good to see them being a bit more positive.

Toires [sic] and VAT are never trusted.

Neither are Labour and National Insurance, or Labour and pensions, or Labour and the Lisbon Treaty (which they specifically promised, in their 2005 manifesto, a referendum on). To be honest, your constant arguments that the Tories are evil and not to be trusted are getting a little boring - I have absolutely no trust in the current Labour government and their tendency to dodge answering questions properly (see PMQs practically every week), their dishonest manipulation of statistics, and this bizarre call they are now making for a "new kind of politics", as if they haven't already had 13 sodding years to fiddle with voting systems and the House of Lords.

[Gavin Scott]

Cover of the Scotsman this morning (despite its peculiarly positive undertones for the tories) reveals that Cameron is not content with plagiarising Nixon - he's gone the whole hog and is now using Kennedy's "ask not what your country can do for you..." line.

Is this hollow man going to run the country on the basis of "re-tweeting" better men that came before?

To be fair, the whole Conservative ideology is based on small government and the Kennedy line fits in with this theme. Admittedly, the whole theme of the manifesto and their pledges is a bold direction to take, and I'm not sure it will resonate with the electorate like they hope, but it is good to see them being a bit more positive.

The Kennedy reference I can see - but he was using Nixon's spiel last week. The problem with parroting from so many disparate sources is that the juxtaposition of some of them makes him look awful foolish.

I've got the same book in my bookcase - "Great speeches and quotations of our time" - but I'd never dream of running all the way through it reading one after the other!

[Chie]

Products that contain alcohol or chocolate, perfume/EDT, new clothes, restaurant cuisine, computer games, DVDs, sofas and anything else that isn't necessary to live.

So when did you become a naturist then, Chie?

Or is your part of the country so consumed with Global Warming that you don't need any clothes?

I said new clothes!

VAT at 20%? Good god. That's one way to stop people spending money. VERY helpful to make sure we come out of a painful recession, chie.

Cover of the Scotsman this morning (despite its peculiarly positive undertones for the tories) reveals that Cameron is not content with plagiarising Nixon - he's gone the whole hog and is now using Kennedy's "ask not what your country can do for you..." line.

Is this hollow man going to run the country on the basis of "re-tweeting" better men that came before?

Without wanting to sound like a socialist, it's a tax on self-indulgence - which I think the country really needs. It's only an extra 25p for every £10 you spend. The money needs to come from somewhere.

'Tax the bankers' won't work because they'll only pass the cost on to us anyway, and 'tax the rich' won't work either because they'll either lay workers off, increase their prices or take their money somewhere else.

The government bailed out the banks to save ordinary people's savings, properties, investments and pensions. Everyone has benefited from the bailout, so it's only right that everyone works towards paying the money back.

As an aside, VAT does not currently apply to: salt, herbs and spices, sweeteners, flavourings and flavour enhancers of any kind, ready meals, ready made sandwiches, Bourbon and other biscuits where the chocolate or similar product forms a sandwich layer between two biscuit halves and is not continued onto the outer surface, Jaffa cakes, sponge cakes, pastries, eclairs, meringues, flapjacks, sugar, chocolate spread, liquid chocolate icing, Cocoa and drinking chocolate, tortilla chips, corn chips, bagel chips, cocktail cheese savouries or Twiglets.

So the full rate of VAT ought to be applied to those too.

[Jovis]

Products that contain alcohol or chocolate, perfume/EDT, new clothes, restaurant cuisine, computer games, DVDs, sofas and anything else that isn't necessary to live.

So when did you become a naturist then, Chie?

Or is your part of the country so consumed with Global Warming that you don't need any clothes?

I said new clothes!

Elaborate.

[Chie]

Elaborate.

Clothes that are new. People spend far too much money on new clothes and handbags and shoes. If 25p on every £10's worth of new clothes they purchase is really going to bankrupt them then I suggest they make do with last season's, or go on eBay.

Another thing that should be VAT'd is coffee.

[Pete]

I said new clothes!

So if you go into the shop naked they'll assume you don't have any clothes and therefore they count as your vat free outfit. Or do we all have to wear pre-soiled undies from Oxfam now?