LAST Thursday, people all over the country gave Gordon Brown an unequivocal message – they are fed up with his dithering and spectacular lack of leadership and they are fed up with his mismanagement of the economy.
I am thrilled that we now have over 250 more Conservative councillors – including four more in Crawley – and I'm delighted that in Boris Johnson, London now has a Conservative Mayor.
The run-up to the next general election will be politically e
xciting times – whatever your political affiliation – but it's crucial that all the main parties focus their attention on understanding how the cost of living has soared in recent months and, more importantly, how they can do something about it.
No one can have failed to notice that across the board, prices are rising. Conservatives realised this long before Gordon Brown admitted that things were going wrong and that's why we commissioned some research by the independent House of Commons library.
Their conclusions show that Gordon Brown's claim that official inflation is running at 2.5 per cent is laughable, but, as I said, anyone who has done their weekly shopping, filled up their car and paid their energy bills will already know that.
Since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister, nine months ago, the price of butter has increased by 37 per cent, the price of a loaf of bread by 28 per cent and the price of a pint of milk by 17 per cent. Petrol has increased by eight per cent and, in the last month alone, gas and electricity prices have jumped by ten per cent.
To add insult to injury, the latest Budget will put an additional £110 a year on every family's tax bill.
Conservatives have a number of innovative ways of tackling this situation. We would, for example, increase the Working Tax Credit that couples currently receive from £3,430 to £5,385. The direct effect would be to lift 300,000 children out of poverty and we'd be able to implement the change as savings are generated through our radical programme of welfare reform.
We would also create a new Family Fund which would use revenue generated from new green taxes to cut taxes for families.
And we'd do other things such as abolishing Stamp Duty for first-time buyers – for homes up to the value of £250,000 anyway!
We'd also ensure that energy companies make the prices they pay for gas public – we can't allow the customer to feel only the consequences of price hikes and not price cuts.
These are just a flavour of how we would tackle the effects of the rising cost of living – I'd be delighted to hear from County Times readers if you have any comments or indeed suggestions.
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