Mike A: I'm going to put down a barrage if no-one else will
i) Who are you?
I am a London Councillor and the Cabinet Member responsible for Police and Community Safety in my borough. In my working life I am a professional economist. I have held two of the top advisory jobs in Central Government: Special Adviser to the Secretary of State for Employment and Special Adviser to three Conservative Chancellors of the Exchequer. I am regularly used by the BBC economics and business unit for programmes like Wake Up to Money on Radio 5 Live and I have an international reputation largely as a result of my economic journalism in the Wall Street Journal, The European and International Economy.
ii) Do you think you have the common touch you need to be mayor?
Yes. I see myself as an ordinary Londoner who shares the concerns and ambitions of most of us who live here. I was born in Barnet. My Mother had just separated from my Father shortly before I was born. I grew up in a single parent household at a time when single parents had little help and women on their own had a tough time – whether you are talking about getting a job to support a child or even being able to borrow money for a mortgage. I went to a comprehensive school. Until I was about 15 I had no interest in schoolwork and like a lot of boys did not enjoy anything to do with education. I think I am a down to earth, regular guy.
iii) How many times have you ever been to Croydon or Sutton?
Lots. As a young teenager in the summer holidays I used to stay with my cousins in Sutton. An old girl friend lives in Croydon. I have also been to Croydon as part of my professional work to speak to the board of directors of the insurance company Direct Line and to speak to the Croydon branch of the Institute of Chartered Accountants. The last time I was there was to talk to the Croydon North Conservative Association’s Indian lunch at the Thornton Heath Conservative Club in May.
iv) Where do you think the key battleground areas will be in London? Where do you think the swing voters will be?
The whole of Greater London will be the battleground. Under a PR voting system all votes count, no Conservative votes will be wasted. So every part of Greater London is key. The outer London boroughs will be critical. This is because many people living in them know that they pay a heavy price for living in Greater London, but do not get the services they want in terms of police, buses and an underground system. Demonstrating to voters across Greater London that we can control the bills they pay and get value for money for the money spent in their name will be essential if we are to win.
v) Which football team do you support? (Please avoid 'none')
My Mother remarried when I was 15 and my Stepfather was a professional footballer, Ellis Stuttard. He was the Manager of Plymouth Argyle and had previously been Assistant Manager at Arsenal. His real skill was ‘scouting’. He could watch 14 and 15-year-old boys play football, identify real talent and then train them up and sell them on to other clubs. That’s how he kept Plymouth Argyll financially afloat in the 1970s. So I take an interest in Argyle.
vi) What do you think of the Crossrail project?
I support Crossrail. Greater London needs a huge improvement in its mass transit services, principally rail services. The City of London and the business community originally called for Crossrail to ensure that London remains economically competitive. The key thing is that the financing must be got right, so that the tickets are affordable. It should be part of the Oyster card network so that it can enable people, who have difficulty finding work, to get jobs and to be able to afford to travel to the work that they can get.
vii) What do you make of the preferential tax rates paid by private equity providers?
London must remain competitive as an international financial center and it needs a mayor who can confidently promote it and stand up for its interests. As a result of Gordon Brown the UK is not as internationally tax competitive as it was in 1997. A rising tax burden, increases in rates of national insurance contributions and a top tax rate of 40 per cent means that the UK is no longer a low tax economy compared to the OECD. The tax issues involved in private equity are complicated. Nothing should be done that endangers the competitive position of the City of London. And nothing should be done that is not properly thought through.
The taxation of private equity is complex. The issues turn on two things: the precise issue of the taxation of ‘carry’, and the broader issue of the taxation of capital gains. ‘Carry’ is the payment made to fund managers for organizing the investment funds and under an agreement made with the Inland Revenue about twenty years ago is treated as a capital gain rather than a payment of income for work done.
Until Gordon Brown changed the Capital Gaines Tax regime in 1998, this was not much of an issue, because under rules brought in by Nigel Lawson in 1988 income and capital were taxed at the same marginal rate. Rich people with capital did not like it, but it was roughly fair between the two. In fact the taxation of capital gains was slightly lighter because only real gains were taxed, with special and complicated rules about indexation - avoiding inflationary gains being taxed and an exempt threshold before gains were taxed. The very rich did not like it, because they thought that they were special and should enjoy a special lower rate of tax on capital gains than people who go to work. Accountants grumbled about the complexity of doing the indexation calculations.
Gordon Brown scrapped indexation and replaced it with an equally complicated regime of taper relief, so that the longer a taxpayer has held an asset the lower the tax rate. At a stroke Gordon Brown created the kind of tax regime that the very rich had complained about not having under the Conservatives. It provides scope for people with capital gains to pay much lower rates of tax than any one in paid work facing national insurance and income tax. It is these anomalies that the Labour members of the House of Commons Treasury Select committee enjoyed exploring about two weeks ago.
The one thing that should not be done is a knee jerk legislative response to this complicated set of issues. London has to remain a tax competitive financial centre. Since the 1960s, London has been successful, because other places like New York have loaded themselves with regulations and tax costs that have driven business away. In the 1960s the President Kennedy’s Democrat administration introduced withholding tax that effectively stimulated the creation of the euro-dollar bond market in London. Recently the US Congress has passed expensive and ineffective corporate governance regulations, the Sarbanes Oxley Act that has resulted in companies preferring to list new securities in London. Senator Hillary Clinton as part of her presidential campaign, has backed calls for higher taxes on private equity and hedge fund managers. She is calling for ‘carry’ to be taxed at the ordinary income tax rate, which in the US will mean a top rate of tax of 35 per cent rather than the Capital Gains Tax rate of 15 per cent. At the moment London enjoys a competitive tax advantage and if Mrs Clinton gets her way London’s current advantage will be further entrenched. We should do nothing that jeopardizes the position of London’s financial markets, given their importance to both the London economy and the British economy.
iix) Which of the other candidates would you vote for? (if you give a lame excuse not to answer, I'll conclude the answer is Ken Livingstone)
I am campaigning for the nomination myself.
ix) Have you been a victim of crime in London?
Yes. I have had my car done over twice.
...running out of ideas...
x) Your name sounds very dashing - like something from a poncy novel. Did you used to be called 'Gideon'?
No. But Warwick is certainly an unusual name and I will not lack name recognition as the Conservative Candidate for Mayor of London.
xi) Which borough do you dislike the most? (again, no dodging the answer)
It is time we had a Mayor who actually likes the Boroughs and wants to work with them, rather than seeking to diminish them. Each borough has its points of interest and beauty. There are fabulous buildings, parks and interesting shopping centers and markets throughout the London boroughs.
TaxCutter: Why not abolish the additional layer of government the Mayor subjects us too?
Under the present Labour Mayor spending has roughly trebled to over £10 billion. We need to get value for money from the big ticket items that come under the Mayor of London’s budget responsibility: Transport for London, Police and the Fire Service. In City Hall we should start with a zero based budget. We need to ensure that the expensive duplication of the work of the London boroughs that the present Labour Mayor does, is ended. I will ensure that every pound spent in City Hall is made to sweat and that will require fundamental public service reform.
Are you prepared to get down to some dirty fighting if selected to take on Ken Livingstone, not least by making sure Ken gets identified with all the highly illiberal groups and people he has chose to associate himself with over the years?
The present Labour Mayor has a track record. It is a combination of huge poorly planned increases in spending, imposing big tax increases on Greater London council taxpayers for little result in terms of improvement in public services; combined with a cavalier and frivolous political agenda that has little or no direct bearing on making London a better run city, but a political agenda that offends and winds up a lot of people. I will ensure that this political record is fully exposed.
Ay Up: Not being from London I can't really comment, but as a K&C man can you point to any experiences in life that you feel help you to connect with the "ordinary Londoners" that Ken, I mean Livingstone, has done so well to court?
Born into single parent family in Barnet, went to a comprehensive, was no good at school as a youngster, first job was a hospital messenger before going to university and I fight my way around London on the tube and buses like everyone else.
Comstock: (I have both friends and family in London, so I'm taking an interest in this election)
Two from me....
Would it be fair to describe you as 'upper middle class'? If so, do you feel you can relate to the 'man on the Clapham Omnibus'?
No probably not. My family was many things, but not what you call ‘upper’ middle class. I was born into a single parent family. My Mother had separated from my Father shortly before I was born, because he beat her up. She later remarried a professional footballer, who managed a football club and had been assistant manager of Arsenal. I went to a comprehensive. On the whole I have had similar life experiences to most people living in London.
How much time do you spend in places like Brixton or Bethnal Green?
Quit a lot. I used work in Tower Hamlets. I often go shopping for clothes on Commercial Road and in Green Street in West Ham. This weekend I have just been to Hoxton to see an artist’s studio where a friend’s niece at Wimbledon College of Art has put on an installation exhibition. I am going to Brixton market on Thursday.
Peter Kingsman: Do you think the London Mayor's priorities adequately reflect the needs of the outer London boroughs.
No they do not. The outer London boroughs pay a heavy price for being included in Greater London and do not get the services and attention they deserve. There are communities, that outside Greater London, would be regarded as cities in themselves and larger than cities like Dundee or Swindon. Many of these communities’ centers were built in the 1920s and 1930s and now need regeneration and attention. Greater London needs a Mayor who recognizes this and who can work with the boroughs in practical ways to improve them.
Constance Brewing: Who did you vote for in the last leadership election?
David Cameron
Simon Wright-Lewis: Ken Livingstone is a big figure known across London. None of the declared Conservative candidates for mayor are very well known, do you think (a) you and (b) the other candidates have the stature to take on Ken Livingstone?
I am a fresh face with fresh ideas. I know London well and I have the invaluable experience of being a London councillor, which gives me a vantage point from which to see the damage that the present Mayor is inflicting. Having served as a senior Government adviser at the Treasury and a City economist, I have the confidence both to challenge the political record of the present Labour Mayor and to set out an attractive agenda of practical proposals that would make London a better and safer place to live and work in. Whoever is the Conservative Candidate will get a huge amount of coverage and one thing is certain my name Warwick Lightfoot will not be easily forgotten.
The other candidates offer distinctive Conservative platforms and bring a range of different and interesting skills and experience to our debate.
Kitty Harper: Would you have campaigned for Greg Dyke had he been the Conservative/Lib Dem candidate?
I am a Conservative and I would campaign for the Conservative Party Candidate.
Umbrella Man: What role should London MPs play in the governance of London?
The London MPs have a vital and direct role in setting the legislative framework that the Mayor and the London boroughs work in; and they have a crucial role as advocates for funding London and ensuring that London retains a fair proportion of the tax revenue that it generates for the British economy. As Mayor I will want to work both with the London boroughs and London’s MPs.
Jennifer Wells: Would you consult people who commute into London on how London can be improved?
Yes. It is important to make Greater London a better place both to live and work in and many of the people who contribute to the London economy live outside. So it would be my intention to consult them.
Felicity Mountjoy: London is a gay capital of the world. What will you do to ensure we maximize London’s share of the pink euro, the pink yen and the pink dollar.
London is a cosmopolitan and diverse city and I take pride in that. We need to ensure that everyone is welcome and tourism is important for jobs and economic opportunities for people in London. We will attract visitors by ensuring that we offer a safe, attractive and interesting city to visit. We need to nourish London’s diverse arts and cultural scene to ensure that it remains a dynamic and exciting place that people want to come and visit.
Pisaboy: What will you do with the congestion charge? Will you scrap it? Expand it? Increase the price?
I was against the introduction of the Congestion Charge. It attempts to ration road space by driving low-income people off the road. I am against road pricing, because the need to use a car does not neatly correlate with income or wealth. It has damaged businesses especially small businesses and market traders in particular. I would not have introduced it or expanded it. The contracts surrounding the Congesting Charge are opaque. So no responsible candidate can say that they will simply scrap it. I would not extend it, and I would look at ways of varying the price or lifting its operation at certain times of the day and generally lightening the impact of the charge.
Ralph Standwick Barnes: Do you think that Zone 1 should be redrawn to stop discriminating against people in South London? Zone 1 extends far further north, east and west of the centre of London than it does the south.
This is a very interesting question. Fares on the tube even with an oyster card are pricey. Transport for London has aggressively raised its fares and revenue from what they call the ‘fare-box’ has regularly exceeded the estimates in the financial papers tabled as part of the Mayor’s budget. I am very concerned that bus and tube fares should be affordable, because reasonable travel costs are vital if we are to have a chance of getting unemployed Londoners into work. I am also conscious that south London is poorly served in terms of public transport. As Mayor this is a question I would want to look at.
