What's all this fuss about the 10p tax rate? Of course, it's nothing to do with their Lordships!
It's a hundred years since Mr Asquith and Mr Lloyd George presented the first in a series of Liberal budgets that introduced the first ever old-age pensions and provoked a battle with the rich landowners who dominated the Lords.
That stand-off resulted in two "Peers versus the People" General Elections and the first Lords reform when their power to block Commons legislation was restricted to two years.
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The convention that the Lords do not interfere with taxation was firmly established long before then - it was the Lords breaking this convention in the face of Lloyd George's radical budgets that provoked the crisis.
So the abolition of the 10p tax rate is a matter for MPs.
And they seem to have made rather a bodge of it.
The effects are now coming to light and it's causing a real panic among Labour MPs who are discovering just how many of their poorest constituents are being made worse off by their own, supposedly "Labour" government.
What is happening is that the first £2,230 of taxable income will now be taxed at 20p in the pound instead of 10p.
Most people will be better off because the overall tax rate has fallen from 22p to 20p in the pound.
But the poorest won't earn enough for this cut to offset losing the 10p rate.
There are 5.3 million people who stand to suffer, mainly people who do not qualify for tax credits as parents of children or pensioners.
They include single younger workers and women between 60 and 65 on low incomes, plus part-time workers.
It's a lot of people - on average more than 8,000 in each constituency and in low-wage areas such as ours it could be more.
The Labour Government making more than 10,000 of the poorest wage-earners in constituencies such as Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale constituencies worse off?
When the changes were announced by then-Chancellor Gordon Brown a year ago, only the Liberal Democrat shadow chancellor Vince Cable spoke out against them.
Now the 10p has finally dropped. The Tories and the national media are making hay and Labour MPs are running scared.
[bold]No one doubts that the proposal will have detrimental affect upon the more vulnerable members, but lets try to put this into some local context as well.
In Pendle we have received £12 million pounds of governing money in the last four years to help improve the quality of life for vulnerable people and those living within areas of high need. This funding came directy to Pendle Borough Council. The impact of such large investment has been that more people are now on the poverty line in Pendle, than before this central govrnment investment; We are number 1 nationally for infant mortality; We have underachieivng schools and as a consequence pupils, across Lancashire and in some cases nationally; We have high rates of unemployment amongst the young people; More of the elderly population is now living in poverty in Pendle than four years ago. So £12 million of real cash has been wasted on pet projects that has benefited individuals and their organisations - NOW THAT LORD GREAVES WILL HAVE MOMENTOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR YEARS AND DECADES TO COME. As a further declining area Pendle has received a further £1.3 million for 2008/09 and 50% of this has already gone to prop up inefficent council projects and the rest will be divided between inefficient community projects - the same projects that were funded with the £12 million. Its also worth noting that no one has even bothered to assess whether these projects were having the desired impact.
So lord Greaves, no one doubts the impact of the tax band changes, BUT YOU AND YOUR ADMINISTRATION HAVE TOO CONTRIBUTED TO THE DECLINE OF QUALITY OF LIFE, HEALTH, AND ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEING OF THE PEOPLE OF PENDLE.[/bold]
No one doubts that the proposal will have detrimental affect upon the more vulnerable members, but lets try to put this into some local context as well.
In Pendle we have received £12 million pounds of governing money in the last four years to help improve the quality of life for vulnerable people and those living within areas of high need. This funding came directy to Pendle Borough Council. The impact of such large investment has been that more people are now on the poverty line in Pendle, than before this central govrnment investment; We are number 1 nationally for infant mortality; We have underachieivng schools and as a consequence pupils, across Lancashire and in some cases nationally; We have high rates of unemployment amongst the young people; More of the elderly population is now living in poverty in Pendle than four years ago. So £12 million of real cash has been wasted on pet projects that has benefited individuals and their organisations - NOW THAT LORD GREAVES WILL HAVE MOMENTOUS CONSEQUENCES FOR YEARS AND DECADES TO COME. As a further declining area Pendle has received a further £1.3 million for 2008/09 and 50% of this has already gone to prop up inefficent council projects and the rest will be divided between inefficient community projects - the same projects that were funded with the £12 million. Its also worth noting that no one has even bothered to assess whether these projects were having the desired impact.
So lord Greaves, no one doubts the impact of the tax band changes, BUT YOU AND YOUR ADMINISTRATION HAVE TOO CONTRIBUTED TO THE DECLINE OF QUALITY OF LIFE, HEALTH, AND ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL BEING OF THE PEOPLE OF PENDLE.
Posted by: taxpayer of nelson on 7:49pm Tue 22 Apr 08
If what this Smooth is saying is correct then this is appalling amount of money that has been wasted. Who exactly has this moeny gone too? WHat have they delivered with it and to whom?
I beleive that liberals have done an ok job, but if this amount of money has been wasted then someone needs to be held accountable. Lord Greaves, you have rightly pointed out the consequences of the changes in the 10p tax band and I believe you also have repsonsibility to look into this £12 million fiasco as well, after all accountability is not a "pic n mix".
If what this Smooth is saying is correct then this is appalling amount of money that has been wasted. Who exactly has this moeny gone too? WHat have they delivered with it and to whom?
I beleive that liberals have done an ok job, but if this amount of money has been wasted then someone needs to be held accountable. Lord Greaves, you have rightly pointed out the consequences of the changes in the 10p tax band and I believe you also have repsonsibility to look into this £12 million fiasco as well, after all accountability is not a "pic n mix".
Posted by: taxpayer, Pendle on 10:00pm Tue 22 Apr 08
The Liberals were the only ones to oppose scrapping the 10p tax rate when G Brown announced it in last year's budget.
Top marks to them for realising that it was a wrong move and doing something about it.
The tories look pretty pathetic having gone along with it then and now doing a U-turn to score petty political points.
As for Prentice papping on, he's got so little influence on the government, he's worse than useless as our MP.
Let's see how many "Labour" MPs vote to bring back the 10p rate of tax - not enough I bet.
The Liberals were the only ones to oppose scrapping the 10p tax rate when G Brown announced it in last year's budget.
Top marks to them for realising that it was a wrong move and doing something about it.
The tories look pretty pathetic having gone along with it then and now doing a U-turn to score petty political points.
As for Prentice papping on, he's got so little influence on the government, he's worse than useless as our MP.
Let's see how many "Labour" MPs vote to bring back the 10p rate of tax - not enough I bet.
[quote][bold]taxpayer[/bold] wrote:
The Liberals were the only ones to oppose scrapping the 10p tax rate when G Brown announced it in last year's budget. Top marks to them for realising that it was a wrong move and doing something about it. The tories look pretty pathetic having gone along with it then and now doing a U-turn to score petty political points. As for Prentice papping on, he's got so little influence on the government, he's worse than useless as our MP. Let's see how many "Labour" MPs vote to bring back the 10p rate of tax - not enough I bet.[/quote] Thank you for pointing out things that liberals have little or no control over - HOWEVER i would appreciate an answer with regards to the mismanagement and wastage of £12 million in Pendle and of course the extortionate rise in council tax - and before you tell us that a large slice goes to the county, a large slice of a larger slice still leaves a large slice.
taxpayer wrote:
The Liberals were the only ones to oppose scrapping the 10p tax rate when G Brown announced it in last year's budget. Top marks to them for realising that it was a wrong move and doing something about it. The tories look pretty pathetic having gone along with it then and now doing a U-turn to score petty political points. As for Prentice papping on, he's got so little influence on the government, he's worse than useless as our MP. Let's see how many "Labour" MPs vote to bring back the 10p rate of tax - not enough I bet.
Thank you for pointing out things that liberals have little or no control over - HOWEVER i would appreciate an answer with regards to the mismanagement and wastage of £12 million in Pendle and of course the extortionate rise in council tax - and before you tell us that a large slice goes to the county, a large slice of a larger slice still leaves a large slice.
My assessement of the situation locally is that the ruling political elite on Pendle Council are intent on doing as much damage to the local economy as they can. How else can one explain their recklessness?
The rise in the Counil Tax for the Borough Council is just a whisker below the level that would invoke the Government using its powers of 'capping'.
To add to this misery we are to get a Town Council in Colne (and Nelson is getting one too) that will cost households another £30-£50 a year.
This doesn't sound a large amount but for households on the financial brink it may well be the final straw that pushes them over the edge.
We have identified an item of purchase costing 90p a week that we are no longer going to buy so that we can pay for the Town Council. Of course, that item was bought at a local 'independent' retailer in Colne who will now lose 90p of tutnover and the element of profit that goes with it.
Next the ruling elite in Colne will be scratching their heads and asking: why are our town centres in decline? Why are 'our' people so poor?
They seem to have no grasp of basic economics.
It's a good job they have delusions because if they were to confront reality they would have to face the truth that they have probably done as much damage as good as they blunder from one catastrophe to the next.
My assessement of the situation locally is that the ruling political elite on Pendle Council are intent on doing as much damage to the local economy as they can. How else can one explain their recklessness?
The rise in the Counil Tax for the Borough Council is just a whisker below the level that would invoke the Government using its powers of 'capping'.
To add to this misery we are to get a Town Council in Colne (and Nelson is getting one too) that will cost households another £30-£50 a year.
This doesn't sound a large amount but for households on the financial brink it may well be the final straw that pushes them over the edge.
We have identified an item of purchase costing 90p a week that we are no longer going to buy so that we can pay for the Town Council. Of course, that item was bought at a local 'independent' retailer in Colne who will now lose 90p of tutnover and the element of profit that goes with it.
Next the ruling elite in Colne will be scratching their heads and asking: why are our town centres in decline? Why are 'our' people so poor?
They seem to have no grasp of basic economics.
It's a good job they have delusions because if they were to confront reality they would have to face the truth that they have probably done as much damage as good as they blunder from one catastrophe to the next.
I am very surprised that Greaves has been allowed to carry on this column even though we are in the regulated period of the election and he is even a candidate.
Poor effort from LET.
I am very surprised that Greaves has been allowed to carry on this column even though we are in the regulated period of the election and he is even a candidate.
Lord Greaves is the Master of the Universe in Pendle - just look at the way the councillor in Whitefield ward jumps to attention everytime you mention Lord Greaves name to him. Poor Mr Nadeem as a councillor he has made a total mess of Whitefield - not to worry come May 1st the rather large bloke (Not Me) Mr tariq will be flying the flag for Whitefields ressurection - it seems that the nightmare about constant disapointments for Whitefield will continue.
Lord Greaves is the Master of the Universe in Pendle - just look at the way the councillor in Whitefield ward jumps to attention everytime you mention Lord Greaves name to him. Poor Mr Nadeem as a councillor he has made a total mess of Whitefield - not to worry come May 1st the rather large bloke (Not Me) Mr tariq will be flying the flag for Whitefields ressurection - it seems that the nightmare about constant disapointments for Whitefield will continue.
Posted by: Nostradamos, Blackburn on 1:49pm Sat 26 Apr 08
There are 5.3 million people who stand to suffer, mainly people who do not qualify for tax credits as parents of children or pensioners##
I firmly agree,but as G Brown smilingly says Middle england will love this tax move,it is all about trying to keep power by any means,even betraying what the labour party stands for,who cares about those old values we just want power..Hypocrites,Gr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!
There are 5.3 million people who stand to suffer, mainly people who do not qualify for tax credits as parents of children or pensioners##
I firmly agree,but as G Brown smilingly says Middle england will love this tax move,it is all about trying to keep power by any means,even betraying what the labour party stands for,who cares about those old values we just want power..Hypocrites,Gr
rrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!
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