Gordons gaffes
1. Taxing dividend payments
Before 1997, dividends issued by UK companies and paid to pension funds were tax-free - that is, the tax could be claimed back via a system of tax credits. Not any more, decided Brown. Tax relief was scrapped, reducing the amount collected by pension funds by around £5 billion a year. Pension funds holding the cash that you, me and almost everyone else in the country plan to use for our retirement have lost around £100 billion over the last 12 years. That's one hell of a stealth tax.
2. Selling our gold
In May 1999 Gordon Brown had a plan to sell some gold. There were two problems with this, which concerned his economic advisers deeply. The price of gold had slumped after a decade of stagnation, but was likely to increase in the proceeding years. Added to this, the announcement of a major sell-off would drive the price down further. Little of this worried Gordon. Experts believe that the poorly timed decision to flog our national treasure has cost us all around £3 billion. Granted, that doesn't seem much nowadays, but more of that later.
3. Tripartite financial regulation
The system of financial regulation dividing powers between the Treasury, the Bank of England and the Financial Services Authority, established by Brown as Chancellor in 2000, missed what amounted to the biggest financial crisis of our lifetime. Whoops. This has led some glass-half-empty commentators to conclude that the system set up by Brown failed and should be replaced. The Commons Treasury Select Committee’s report on the collapse of Northern Rock said that the Financial Services Authority had “systematically failed in its duty” to oversee the troubled bank’s activities. Little did it realise at the time that Northern Rock was the over-leveraged tip of the securitised iceberg.
4. Tax credits
“Gordon Brown claims the tax credits system lifts children out of poverty,” says Simon Blackmore, 38, who was pursued for £6,057 in over-paid tax credits. “Maybe it does, but only to plunge them and their families into debt two years later.” Millions of low-income families have had to pay back the Treasury after receiving too much money in tax credits, putting them under huge financial and emotional strain. Meanwhile, 40 per cent of workers and families who deserved tax credits left billions of pounds unclaimed in the 2008-09 tax year for fear of being chased for the cash later on. Introduced in 1999, reformed in 2000, tax credits have been "a complete disaster zone", according to tax experts.
5. The £10,000 corporation tax threshold
In 2002, Gordon Brown introduced a new tax regime to help small businesses. He announced a new zero per cent rate of corporation tax on profits below £10,000. It was designed to boost the ability of small businesses to grow and prosper. It didn't quite work out this way. It became advantageous for sole traders such as taxi drivers or plumbers to turn themselves into limited companies to take advantage of the new rules. A Treasury Minister later commented that "the Government did not realise how many people would engage in abusive tax avoidance", despite the fact that it was "blindingly obvious" to tax experts "within 5 seconds" of the budget announcement that this would happen. Gordon scrapped the rules a few years later, raising the rate from 0 per cent to 19 per cent when he released how much money was being lost.
6. Abolition of the 10p tax rate
Mr Brown rarely apologises. In fact, he never apologises. But occasionally he acknowledges "mistakes", albeit begrudgingly. Over the abolition of the 10p tax rate in 2007, Mr Brown told Radio 4's Today programme that "we made two mistakes. We didn't cover as well as we should that group of low-paid workers who don't get the working tax credits and we weren't able to help the 60 to 64-year-olds who didn't get the pensioner's tax allowance." Experts use stronger language to describe the Budget of 2007, which was designed to produce positive headlines for the 2p cut in income tax. Accountants calculated that the scrapping of the 10 per cent tax rate, coupled with the increase in the proportion of tax credits withdrawn from higher earners, would leave 1.8 million workers earning between £6,500 and £15,000 paying an effective tax rate of up to 70 per cent.
7. Failing to spot the housing bubble
Gordon Brown said he ended boom and bust, and in those innocent days before the collapse of the global finance system we believed him. In 1997, he outlined his plans. "Stability is necessary for our future economic success", he wisely informed an audience at the CBI. "The British economy of the future must be built not on the shifting sands of boom and bust, but on the bedrock of prudent and wise economic management." The other components of that bedrock including a trillion-pound debt mountain and a decade of unchecked and unparalleled house price inflation presumably slipped his mind. In 2003 a mild-mannered Liberal Democrat MP by the name of Vince Cable dared to question the mantra of "the end of boom and bust". He asked Gordon Brown: "Is it not true that...the growth of the British economy is sustained by consumer spending pinned against record levels of personal debt, which is secured, if at all, against house prices that the Bank of England describes as well above equilibrium level?" Gordon replied: "The Honourable Gentleman has been writing articles in the newspapers, as reflected in his contribution, that spread alarm, without substance, about the state of the economy..." We all know what happened next.
8. 50 per cent tax rate
Robert Chote, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, has said the tax hike which heralded the end the new Labour may actually end up losing the Government money. "If you look at what happened when higher rates were last changed in the 1980s, that might lead you to suggest that such a move might actually lose you revenue, rather than gain it, as people actually declare less income for tax," he said.
9. Cutting VAT
"It would be funny if it wasn’t so serious," said a tax accountant when asked about the Brown-Darling brainwave to cut VAT by 2.5 percentage points. As a nation of shoppers, rather than shopkeepers, a chopped down sales tax sounds like a good idea, providing a vital boost to hard-pressed families at a time of financial hardship. There were two problems. It costs £12.5 billion a year and it has made little discernable difference to those hard-pressed families because it is shopkeepers, rather than shoppers, who have pocketed much of the benefit.
10. Public-sector borrowing
If Gordon had only saved a little more in the good times, we might have had a little more to fall back on in the bad, economists sigh. Last month saw public-sector net borrowing hit £19.9 billion, the highest on record, according to the Office for National Statistics. The chancellor of the exchequer, Alistair Darling, has forecast that Government borrowing will reach £175 billion this year. It is forecast that total government debt will double to 79 per cent of GDP by 2013, the highest level since World War 2. Mr Chote recently warned that "the scale of the underlying problem that the Treasury’s detailed forecasts identify will require two full parliaments of mounting austerity to repair.”
I quite like the idea of a Corbyn as a leader. Someone who has morals and above all, not part of the last Labour Government. If you were part of the last Labour Government, you gave the leadership tacit consent for what they did and saying you disagreed with the ideas in principle doesn't remove you from the shared blame.
He would at least offer an alternative, as opposed to the Tory-lite of most of the other options...
An alternative no one will touch with a barge pole.
That is the Catch 22 though isn't it?
Is Blair acceptable because he was electable, despite not really doing much to reverse the iniquity of Thatcherism? Is it better to have some of what you want more often, than the potential of all of what you want, and a distinct alternative?
One thing you can say for Corbyn is he's authentic in his beliefs, and genuine. If managed properly that offers a selling point. The issue comes whenever the PR men get their hands on whoever, and try to turn them into something they're not. It' partly why Blair was electable because he already was smooth and a warm speaker before they got to him... and he could embrace his inauthenticity.
The same authentic qualities apply to Farage.
Actually is Corbyn anti EU? Always makes me smile that Foot and Benn actually agreed with old Nigel on Europe.
This country loaths radicalism.
A bunch of sensationalism where Grendel decends to Sun-speak
Would you have gone to university if it meant building up a £53,000 debt, which is what those starting their degree's next year face. The less well off are being priced out of education by this government, where is the opportunity in that. I'd never heard of Corbyn until a few weeks ago but every time I've seen him in a debate with the other candidates he's wiped the floor with them, I'm fed up of well manicured image over substance politicians and welcome the likes of Corbyn to the frontline, how those who put him forward as a bit of a joke must be regretting their actions now.Hardly descending to sun speak - merely showing that the Labour Party lurching to an 80's style of socialist politics will mean years and years of Tory government.
On humanitarian and welfare issues I am hardly right of centre.
The economy - if you believe in capitalism- has to have a belief in base Tory principals. The maligning of the Thatcher years really is done in a very immature way. There is always context to the argument. The context is that society will always support those that offer opportunity hope and most importantly ambition. The socialist dogma of the 80's chocked any hope of ambition and self development. Society rejected it. Blair managed to merge both to a degree and therefore was elected.
The choice of Corbyn and his desire for a concrete Stalinist world of oppression and stifling of talent and the Etonian right wing Johnson will, I assure you, be no contest. It's interesting how the left have tried to bully Kendall out of the contest as that's what the left always do. Bully and oppress.
I grew up in thatchers Britain.y family were poor and I went to a poor school. Only one of my family to go to university. So thatchers Britain to me offered ambition and hope and reward for hard work. I'm pretty certain that same hope for the working classes would not have been available via Lord Anthony Wedgewood Benn.
Given the turnout at the election - the proportion that voted Labour...who the hell cares really? Not very many.It's only £3 to have your say In this
I wonder who has or will?
I'll vote for whoever promises to bring Mars Bars back to their original size!!
As a lifelong Labour voter and member I hope JC does become the new leader of the Party and I'll be voting for him.
There needs to be a strong opposition to the Tory tossers and none of the others will be. Look at Ed Milliband, totally useless. Look at Harriet Harman who actually backed the welfare cuts along with many Labour MPs. Incredible.
JC will at least question Tory policy and vote against those he believes to be damaging to the working people of Britain. The Tory Lite option of Kendall, Cooper and Burnham will set up back even further.
Sock it to 'em JC.
Did you see that delightful woman from Shepshed on that reality TV type documentary 'Too fat to work'. Her and her husband { carer} were able to claim £2,200 per month predominantly because she was 21 stone and played the agoraphobic. There are cuts that could and should be made alright, because way too many know how to play the system.
As a lifelong Labour voter and member I hope JC does become the new leader of the Party and I'll be voting for him.
There needs to be a strong opposition to the Tory tossers and none of the others will be. Look at Ed Milliband, totally useless. Look at Harriet Harman who actually backed the welfare cuts along with many Labour MPs. Incredible.
JC will at least question Tory policy and vote against those he believes to be damaging to the working people of Britain. The Tory Lite option of Kendall, Cooper and Burnham will set up back even further.
Sock it to 'em JC.
Did you see that delightful woman from Shepshed on that reality TV type documentary 'Too fat to work'. Her and her husband { carer} were able to claim £2,200 per month predominantly because she was 21 stone and played the agoraphobic. There are cuts that could and should be made alright, because way too many know how to play the system.
Absolutely agree re Jeremy Corburn the campaign by the Tory inspired press tells us in reality Cameron and co are frit to death of him, he will unite the party and has 5 years to do it, he is carasmatic and will rid us of the middle class monopoly at Walworth Road.Despite their recent beating of chests the Tories only have a small majority and with the Europe question to come Cameronsnot as comfortable Ashe makespit
Absolutely agree re Jeremy Corburn the campaign by the Tory inspired press tells us in reality Cameron and co are frit to death of him, he will unite the party and has 5 years to do it, he is carasmatic and will rid us of the middle class monopoly at Walworth Road.Despite their recent beating of chests the Tories only have a small majority and with the Europe question to come Cameronsnot as comfortable Ashe makespit
Picking the exceptions does not prove the rule.
Totally agree with you but for those who defend any cuts at all are being a bit naïve because alongside those who genuinely need help is a culture of career scroungers.
Totally agree with you but for those who defend any cuts at all are being a bit naïve because alongside those who genuinely need help is a culture of career scroungers.
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