I wasn't intending to write a post today, so soon after yesterday's Campaign Start posting but I've just read an article on the East Anglian website that has compelled me to blog about it. Before I became a member of our District Council I was aware of the general concept of housing benefit and that some poorer households got help with their rent and that social housing rents were subsidised. However I rather naively assumed that everyone paid council tax. After all, there are 8 bands with the top band paying three times the amount of the lower band - a rather blunt and very progressive tax. I'm guessing that most people assumed likewise as I like to think of myself as well read but without then knowing the in and out minutae of the housing benefit system.
That changed last year when the council members were briefed about the housing benefit and council tax changes. We were advised that central government were reducing the payments by 10% but that pensioners would be protected so that the 10% savings would have to met by working age claimants. In practice this has been significantly diluted by forcing second home owners to pay 100% council tax on their second properties (even if just used occasionally) and charging landlords a full council tax on unfurnished properties if their void periods between lettings exceeded a few weeks. The general consensus across all political parties of the council felt that these two changes were reasonable.
That still left some working age benefit claimants having to pay more (or rather some) council tax. In Mid Suffolk's case, going from zero to 5% and in Babergh's case from zero to 8.5%. It appears from the East Anglian article that some Essex families are going from zero to 20%. I must confess that I would have been happier to see the payments change to something other than a token contribition as these small amounts will be difficult to collect - 5% is the equivalent of four cigarettes a week or a lottery ticket and a small chocolate bar a week.
In the website/newspaper article you will see a Director of the New Policy Institute (whoever they are) saying "We are turning into a society where we are extremely tough on those at the bottom of the income pile". Extremely tough!!!! Expecting people to pay 5% towards their council services is extremely tough? Council services are the bedrock of a civilised society - education, waste collection, highways, care of the elderly etc. - not some extravagent luxuries. Someone paying just 5% of Band A towards these vital services is paying 1/30th of someone owning an average Band D property.
Anywhere else other than with these 'hidden' (ie. non-apparent) subsidies and I think the average person would be speaking out vocally about this enormous level of discount. For example - going in to the petrol station and waiting in the queue to pay and they hear the cashier say to the person in front of them "That will be 5p a litre please for your diesel". Or with a trolley full of shopping (say £60 to keep the maths simple) in the local supermarket and the person in front has an identical trolley full but is charged just £2. There would be a loud chorus of "Why are they getting petrol at 5p a litre?" or "How come they're getting their trolley full for only £2?" And if those people then went on to buy a full price packet of cigarettes or a lottery ticket with their savings then imagine the outcry!
Of course the person from that policy institute would be a voice in the background advising us that 5p a litre or £2 a trolley full is still extremely tough on these people at the bottom of the income pile. The ultimate irony is that even their 5p's and £2s may be being paid by you and I anyway through the tax and benefit system.
And that's why I chose as the first priority on my County election leaflet "To speak up for the 'squeezed middle'" All those people who are working hard, pay a lot into the system, get little back out and who are now finding day-to-day budgeting to be extremely tough despite making all the best efforts themselves.
Saturday 30 March 2013
Friday 29 March 2013
A NEW CAMPAIGN STARTS
Back in May 2012 I sat in front of the CS&NI Conservative Association's local government committee, a panel of nine prominent local party members, after I had put myself forward for selection as the Conservative candidate for the Gipping Valley Division in the 2013 County elections. Afterwards I felt confident I had acquitted myself well to their questioning but I was still pleased to later receive their letter advising that I was through to the next stage. Two candidates had put themselves forward for the division and therefore the next stage would be a ballot of party members in the division. We both had to write an A4 length paper "Why I would like to be the County Councillor for the Gipping Valley Division" and these were then circulated, along with the ballot papers. The ballot papers were opened on 29th June (co-incidentally, my birthday) and I was relieved to hear that I was selected.
One of the questions I had been asked at the selection interview was "If you were not selected for your own division, would you be prepared to stand elsewhere?" I had answered that quite honestly by stating that I was putting myself forward to represent my neighbours and my locality and that I would much rather do that than stand elsewhere in a 'Safe Conservative seat'.
That all seems a long time ago but now the campaign is about to get underway. A couple of weeks ago I submitted my nomination form signed by ten local residents and on 22nd March a letter arrived from Electoral Services advising me that my completed form "is a valid nomination". And meanwhile I had written the wording for my first leaflet and then collected those from the printer yesterday lunchtime.
Now begins the task of sorting all these into a series of delivery rounds and then getting them through all the letterboxes of the Gipping Valley Division.
So let battle commence! Last time in the County election [2009] I received 739 votes which was just 59% of the votes the winning candidate achieved. So it is a very big ask - a 'seismic swing' needed. And what I don't know yet is which other parties will be putting forward candidates. As well as my Lib Dem opponent, will Suffolk Together and Labour field candidates again and will UKIP enter the equation for the first time? That will have to wait until 9th April when the 'Statement Of Persons Nominated' is published.
All I know now is that I'm going to have a very very busy April!
One of the questions I had been asked at the selection interview was "If you were not selected for your own division, would you be prepared to stand elsewhere?" I had answered that quite honestly by stating that I was putting myself forward to represent my neighbours and my locality and that I would much rather do that than stand elsewhere in a 'Safe Conservative seat'.
That all seems a long time ago but now the campaign is about to get underway. A couple of weeks ago I submitted my nomination form signed by ten local residents and on 22nd March a letter arrived from Electoral Services advising me that my completed form "is a valid nomination". And meanwhile I had written the wording for my first leaflet and then collected those from the printer yesterday lunchtime.
Now begins the task of sorting all these into a series of delivery rounds and then getting them through all the letterboxes of the Gipping Valley Division.
So let battle commence! Last time in the County election [2009] I received 739 votes which was just 59% of the votes the winning candidate achieved. So it is a very big ask - a 'seismic swing' needed. And what I don't know yet is which other parties will be putting forward candidates. As well as my Lib Dem opponent, will Suffolk Together and Labour field candidates again and will UKIP enter the equation for the first time? That will have to wait until 9th April when the 'Statement Of Persons Nominated' is published.
All I know now is that I'm going to have a very very busy April!
Sunday 17 March 2013
EU RAIDS SAVINGS AND FREE PRESS UNDER ATTACK
When it comes to the European Union then almost anything it does has an April 1st feel about it. However reading the news today that the Cypriot bail-out involves the EU skimming up to 10% from ordinary savers' bank accounts still has an unreal feel about it.
Cyprus is the fifth Euro nation to need a bail-out. Unlike the previous four however, the EU is proposing to do this by raiding the savings accounts at Cypriot banks and confiscating up to 10%. They are calling it a tax. But it is not a tax on the income - a percentage tax on the interest earned. It is not a tax on a capital gain. It is taking a piece of savers' capital - savings that have been put aside from taxed income. So they are calling it a tax but it is not a tax. It is simply the confiscation of savers' capital - from ordinary people like you and me. If you have modest savings in a bank account can you be sure in the future that the EU won't be coming after a slice of your capital? With its democratic deficit anything is possible with the EU.
Of course the Left don't like capital. The LibDems and Labour's love affair with a mansion tax is no different. It would be levied without any reference to how much income an individual might have. Not content with taking tax from income they now want to skim capital. Why you might ask? Its not just the desire to spend more in the public sector but it is also that most base of human instincts - the envy of others - those with savings, those with bigger houses.
The Left even call a reduction in benefit payments to those living in subsidised housing larger than they need a tax - a "bedroom tax". The next time YOU pay your mortgage or rent perhaps you may spare a moment or two to share the outrage of the Left that others getting free housing will receive 14% less in their housing benefit payment if they have a spare bedroom. Or perhaps like me, you don't like the idea of the government borrowing money that our children will have to pay back in order to keep some people in free housing bigger than they need.
One other bit of news......
This Monday Labour and LibDems are voting together in an attempt to end our free press. Not just those disgraceful hacking tabloids but also newspapers like the Daily Telegraph who broke the MP expenses scandal. And not just newspapers but also websites that include news-related material. So this blog and thousands of others could be brought under central politician control. Centuries of tradition of publishing freedom (at least for newspapers, obviously not this blog!) are under threat from the Left.
So in the future they could stop the reporting on such things as the NHS killing thousands by the neglect of nurses apparently "too posh to wash" and too qualified to lower themselves to provide the basic care to sick and elderly patients. Media controlled by politicians would make politicians' lives easier but would keep the public in the dark.
If you, like me, value the individual ahead of the state then you too will shun all this crazy left-wing ideology when you're at the ballot box.
UPDATE : Horse trading and compromise appear to have been the order of the day on Monday prior to the vote on press control in Parliament. All sides claim to have won!
Here's a fascinating article on the folly of the EU raid on Cypriot bank accounts http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1363613568.php
Cyprus is the fifth Euro nation to need a bail-out. Unlike the previous four however, the EU is proposing to do this by raiding the savings accounts at Cypriot banks and confiscating up to 10%. They are calling it a tax. But it is not a tax on the income - a percentage tax on the interest earned. It is not a tax on a capital gain. It is taking a piece of savers' capital - savings that have been put aside from taxed income. So they are calling it a tax but it is not a tax. It is simply the confiscation of savers' capital - from ordinary people like you and me. If you have modest savings in a bank account can you be sure in the future that the EU won't be coming after a slice of your capital? With its democratic deficit anything is possible with the EU.
Of course the Left don't like capital. The LibDems and Labour's love affair with a mansion tax is no different. It would be levied without any reference to how much income an individual might have. Not content with taking tax from income they now want to skim capital. Why you might ask? Its not just the desire to spend more in the public sector but it is also that most base of human instincts - the envy of others - those with savings, those with bigger houses.
The Left even call a reduction in benefit payments to those living in subsidised housing larger than they need a tax - a "bedroom tax". The next time YOU pay your mortgage or rent perhaps you may spare a moment or two to share the outrage of the Left that others getting free housing will receive 14% less in their housing benefit payment if they have a spare bedroom. Or perhaps like me, you don't like the idea of the government borrowing money that our children will have to pay back in order to keep some people in free housing bigger than they need.
One other bit of news......
This Monday Labour and LibDems are voting together in an attempt to end our free press. Not just those disgraceful hacking tabloids but also newspapers like the Daily Telegraph who broke the MP expenses scandal. And not just newspapers but also websites that include news-related material. So this blog and thousands of others could be brought under central politician control. Centuries of tradition of publishing freedom (at least for newspapers, obviously not this blog!) are under threat from the Left.
So in the future they could stop the reporting on such things as the NHS killing thousands by the neglect of nurses apparently "too posh to wash" and too qualified to lower themselves to provide the basic care to sick and elderly patients. Media controlled by politicians would make politicians' lives easier but would keep the public in the dark.
If you, like me, value the individual ahead of the state then you too will shun all this crazy left-wing ideology when you're at the ballot box.
UPDATE : Horse trading and compromise appear to have been the order of the day on Monday prior to the vote on press control in Parliament. All sides claim to have won!
Here's a fascinating article on the folly of the EU raid on Cypriot bank accounts http://news.goldseek.com/GoldSeek/1363613568.php
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