24 hours in, and still not much sign of that elusive tax beef. In fact most of the actual debate on tax and spend is taking place well away from the platform and out of earshot of party leaders.
True, when George Osborne spoke at his first fringe meeting, he kicked off with a reassuring “I believe in lower taxes”. But when questioned by members about specifics, he fell back on “sharing the proceeds of growth”, and “not taking risks with stability”.
As various people are saying, that formula may be designed not to frighten the horses, but it leaves an awful lot of questions unanswered. What if in the high tax/high debt world after Labour there is no growth? Do we cut real spending? Do we borrow? Do we increase taxes- even though that would hamper growth still further?
And even if there is growth, how do we allocate the proceeds?
The only answers are coming off-piste, well away from the leadership: for example, the CPS plan for pegging the trend growth of spending below that of GDP (a restatement of the Reform Growth Rule, espoused by David Davis during the leadership contest).
There is no doubt about the instincts of most members attending Conference. They want to see smaller government, and lower taxes. And Senator John McCain’s well-received platform speech yesterday has had many looking ruefully across the Atlantic, where a Presidential hopeful is evidently not at all embarrassed to put tax cuts right up front on his pitch.
But we just know there’s beef around here somewhere - we can smell it. And the No Turning Back Group’s “Case For Lower Taxes”, along with the Taxpayer’s Alliance finding that the average family pays a staggering £600,000 tax over a lifetime, have whetted appetites even more keenly.
So the hunt’s still on. And we look forward to George’s platform speech tomorrow, where members will be eager for him to explain how government can possibly make Britain more competitive without cutting taxes. Gordon Brown has tried most of the other levers already, and as we can all see, they don’t work.
If you want the beef without the bull go to the Launch of UKIP's tax policy tommorrow. 11 am
Posted by: Anon-e-mouse | October 02, 2006 at 06:30 PM