Conservative Diary

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A number of the shadow cabinet have done well for themselves. And your point is...?

Picture 8 It should come as little surprise that the politics of envy is alive and kicking at the Daily Mirror, and this morning's splash provides the latest evidence.

Their story seeks to highlight the wealth of the Shadow Cabinet by suggesting that they will "make" £7.1million if the party's plans to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million are introduced.

Never mind the fact that Alistair Darling has actually gone half the way to introducing the policy anyway with this Labour Government raising the threshold to £700,000; how grotesque a distortion it is to suggest that removing some of the tax that bereaved relatives are forced to pay on money which has already been taxed once or twice - possibly even three times - is somehow "making money".

I thought that these kinds of Left-wing attacks on the Conservatives were shown to have failed spectacularly at the Crewe and Nantwich by-election and that we would see and end to them.

But no, it seems that desperate times are calling for increasingly desperate measures.

Yes, a number of the shadow cabinet have made money in the private sector. Should we not be celebrating those who have had successful business careers and be grateful that they want to give something back to their country? The same goes for those who may have inherited some money themselves. Shouldn't we be delighted that they want to do their bit in the name of public service?

I refer you to Loanna Morrison's brilliant Platform piece last week, in which the Tory PPC for Bermondsey and Old Southwark stated:

"David Cameron does not need a qualification in poverty to understand the economic challenges facing Britain. Under Labour, the fat cats keep getting fatter and the required tasks for the future of our country are deferred and obfuscated while the chosen few cling to office and quango jobs.

"If qualifications are needed, Gordon Brown is singularly unqualified. He has never held a job outside politics. No wonder he and his equally unqualified Cabinet have made such a spectacularly bad job of looking after the poor... If the Tories are the party of privilege, they will know how to give us some of it."

Jonathan Isaby 

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