Don't Panic
Will Lib Dem talk become action?
Fri Sep 24 02:36PM
By Joe Wade
This week a large number of bearded men and women wearing sandals with socks descended on Liverpool. No, despite appearances, it wasn't an organic yoghurt weaving convention but the Liberal Democrat Conference. Usually the Lib Dems would roll out a new leader and talk about what they'd do when hogs learnt to hang glide. This year things were different. There were people from the media pointing things with lenses at the people on stage who, for the first time, needed security.
The conference must have been exhilarated by having a hand on the reins of power for the first time in generations. The last liberal-minded party in government collapsed in 1915, and that time it was they who had to invite the Conservatives to form a coalition. The party's fortunes rapidly declined throughout the century as Labour established itself as the main progressive party. In those interim years it has been easy to agree with Lib Dem policies in a sort of abstract way as they never seemed likely to happen. This year, as I found myself nodding along, I realised that for the first time ever it could be more than just talk.
Lib Dem Business Secretary Vince Cable stated that "...markets are often irrational or rigged" and announced a review of executive pay and the responsibilities of directors during takeover battles, which could lead to the so called Cadbury Law to protect workers in companies that are bought out. He added that "capitalism takes no prisoners and kills competition where it can" and that he wants "...to protect consumers and keep prices down and provide a level playing field for small business."
Nick Clegg's conference address contained even more good stuff. He compared tax avoiders with benefit cheats. Although the former (usually residing in Monaco) are costing the taxpayer £42bn a year, whereas the latter (usually residing in the local Wetherspoon) are milking us for about £5.12bn (according to HM Revenue and Customs.) Of course the lesser sum is still eye-wateringly massive but of that, £1.1bn is attributed to ‘Customer Error' and another £1bn is down to ‘Official Error', reducing fraudulent claims to the paltry sum of £3.1bn (which means HMRC still loses £2.1bn actual pounds in errors a year. Oops!)
Despite the power and the increased coverage, the challenge facing the Lib Dems is still similar to that which faced them during the wilderness years; whether their exciting, progressive talk can be translated into real policies. Their lofty ambitions to close tax loopholes are likely to amount to a big fat zero due to the grip of rich, powerful tax avoiders in the Tory party and how there is absolutely nought chance that George ‘Minted' Osborne and Dave ‘Coutts account' Cameron are ever going to clamp down on the very people that finance their party. Some of the highest profile Tory tax dodgers must have been wondering what their donations had bought them during Clegg's speech; people like tax-free Lord Ashcroft, the Deputy Chairman of The Tory Party and the largest donor during the election; Jon Wood, the hedge fund millionaire who donated £500,000 but has only paid tax in this country for the last 18 months; and of course there is Sir Philip Green of Topshop who is now a Tory advisor tackling Whitehall waste, his businesses are all owned by wife Tina who is safely tucked away in Monaco (not Wetherspoon.)
Do Clegg and Cable have the stomach to take on Cameron and Osbourne and try and close the tax gap by making their mega-rich backers pay their share, or were their pleasing pronouncements just for the cameras?
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Cable may try but Clegg certainly won't. He should join the Conservative Party where he really belongs. The difference in opinion and rhetoric between the leaders at the conference (who appear, with the exception of Cable, to have turned into clones of the Tory front benchers) and grass-roots members was so marked that it looks as if the party might split.
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Cable may try but Clegg certainly won't. He should join the Conservative Party where he really belongs. The difference in opinion and rhetoric between the leaders at the conference (who appear, with the exception of Cable, to have turned into clones of the Tory front benchers) and grass-roots members was so marked that it looks as if the party might split.
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So the libs want to give away money that the country doesnt have.Sorry they are going to stop old peoples winter fuel allownce so they can have the money to give away.Why not also tax people into the ground too,and give that away...The Lib Dems have always been a daft party now they are a millstone round this Govenments neck.To make things even worse why not just keep letting people in till we all have about 1metre each to move around in
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Why is it that in this so called democracy of ours that the ordinary hard working people can see and know what the problems are but nothing is ever done. Maybe just for once there is a chance that someone will pick up the chalice of the people they are supposed to represent. Good for the Lib-Dems.
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In response to deldrum3's inward-looking comments about "why not just keep letting people in till we all have about 1 metre each to move around in", do you realise that more people leave the UK every year than enter it? No need to worry pal, your metres to move around in are getting bigger, not smaller. It's the rich who are sponging off the majority in this country, and they need to at least help people who are in poverty so that they don't need winter fuel allowance in the first place. If things were fairer, as the Lib Dems are suggesting, everybody in this country would be better off. Sensible suggestions, as the article writer states. Whether they have the ability to make it happen in the face of Cameron, Osbourne et al, as is also stated, remains to be seen. It'll have to be a pretty cunning plan, but if they could convince just some of the fat cats who don't contribute anything to giving a negligible sum of their earnings (that they hardly work their fingers to the bone to earn!) to those who earn a pittance (and do back-breaking work in comparison) next to it, we'd be getting nearer to equality.
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comment 2 is right. And the LDs knew this fundamental clash was going to rear it's ugly head at some point as the differing ideals are fundamental to each party. Clegg will bottle it, and then watch as the tiptoeing around each other stops, and the purposeful stepping on of toes starts.
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lib DIM
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I will never vote Lib Dem again. Ive never voted tory in my life however it feels like i did at the last election after voteing for a lib dem candidate and then them jumping in bed with the Tories. I feel totaly betrayed and that i wasted my vote. I hope in future votes other people will reflect how i feel and dont vote for the Libs again. Then maybe when they start looseing their MPs they will just think how two faced theyve been.
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The LibDems have never been a serious political party; they are just a bunch of 'whackos' with 'micky mouse' policies!! Vince Cable is clearly not fit to be Business Secretary and he is 'living on another Planet'- he should be sacked and replaced by somebody who has much better intellectual judgement , if , in fact , there are any such people within the ranks of the LibDems, I fear not!!
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Doesnt really matter who does what, they still lure you in with lies then strike you with a hot iron
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