How to Squander a Commons Majority

 Back in 2019 when the Tories won the election with an 80-seat majority, I had hoped they would put that majority to good use.

Yes, we got the pandemic, which put thing on hold for a couple of years, but straight out of the pandemic the Tories started infighting.

An 80-seat majority. Just think what a true Conservative could've done with that. Instead the Tories squandered the opportunity. 

They could have repealed Labour's IR35 tax laws. They didn't.

They could have reduced the overall tax burden for lower paid workers. They didn't.

They could have helped small businesses and reduced corporation tax. They didn't.

Now outside the EU, they could have closed the loophole that allows international companies to pay corporation tax outside the UK. They didn't.

Out of the EU, they had the freedom to cut VAT on energy bills. They didn't.

They could have removed the UK from the ECHR in order to sort the migrant crisis. They didn't. Not even temporarily.

Once it was clear that energy was going to be a serious issue, they could have halted the stupid net zero ideology. They didn't. Not even temporarily.

They had any number of chances to implement proper, decent Tory policies, they had chances to repeal unfair/unjust legislation enacted during previous administrations. They didn't.

I can't count how many chances this government squandered. On infighting and petty vindictiveness. 

To be honest I can't see how they can survive now let alone have the time to use that majority, because I think the mainstream opinion for a new election is so definite we'll have a huge Labour majority in Parliament after the next election, which I assume will happen in the Spring.

End to Austerity Means More/Better Services? Don't Hold Your Breath.

It seems the single take-away point from the Conservative Party Conference for the BBC is the declaration that there will be an end to austerity.

Don't hold your breath.

Despite the "cuts", the national debt has spiralled. Controls on spending have failed to curtain the increase in the amount of debt the country as a whole has to service.

That people across the country still see reduced services means that there is something systemically wrong happening with public finances. We are taxed more than ever as a proportion of GDP, yet the debt is rising, public service wages have flatlined and services are reducing... how can that be?

The problem is the system. The system that controls spending and oversees expenditure is broken.

Take the NHS: I hate to bang on about this, but almost half the money being put into the NHS goes into settling negligence lawsuits and paying lawyers. That's half the NHS budget gone before deciding on priorities like wages and service provision.

The system allows this to happen because it fails to tackle the cause of the lawsuits. Doctors and nurses found guilty of negligence are allowed to continue to practice. It's just one of those things, human error, etc.

This systemic failure needs to be addressed. Quality control in the NHS needs to be stepped up and the bad apples rooted out. Otherwise the lawsuits will bleed the NHS dry like an infestation of ticks. When exactloy do we do something about it? When three quarters of the NHS budget goes to lawyers?

Exactly the same goes for MOD procurement. There is so much waste. Yes, I get that the military should have the best equipment going, but it can get the same capability at a far cheaper cost by being a bit savvy. First, by specifying better contracts with contractors so that the contractor takes the hit for any failures to meet specification. Second, by buying equipment already available rather than keep inventing brand new equipment every time it needs something. A little compromise can bring great savings. For instance making our new carriers suitable for cat and trap aircraft would have made them interoperable with other Navies and allowed us not to rely soley on the expensive F-35 to provide fixed-wing capability. For the 4 million (probably 8 mil by the time it had been implemented, such is the creep in costs) or so it would have cost had it been specified ofrom the outset, we could have had far greater flexibility and larger numbers of cheaper aircraft flying off their deck. As it is, we will have the humiliation of never being able to fly decent numbers of fixed-wing aircraft off the carriers.

When it comes to tax, there is lots to be done. The corporate abuse of tax havens needs to be stopped. Brexit will go some way to end that by forcing companies trading in the UK to pay tax in the UK and not in Luxembourg, Lichtenstein or Ireland.

Making tax simpler by reducing tax at source rather than collect it and pay someone to administer it being paid back is just a more intelligent way of doing things. Instead of tax credits, a universal family tax allowance will stop the tax credit job creation scheme. Abolishing the IR35 tax rule will free up investigators scrutinising endless tax returns for small discrepancies so the HMRC can jump on the self-employed. Lets free up that sector and get back the freedom, ingenuity and entrepreneurship that produced such a boom in I.T. across public and private companies back in the 90's. it will also put an end to the persecution of agency workers in the NHS, mission creep using IR35 as a tool it was not envisioned for.

In local government a cap on earnings can keep ludicrous salaries to a minimum. These are public servants and there should be no need for them to be paid six figure salaries. The person doing the job needs to be aware of their position as a servant of the people and should not take the piss by paying themselves 100 times the national average wage.

There needs to be a big push to rationalise national and local government. It's not about cuts, it's about doing things smarter, cheaper, freeer, it's about stopping practices that cost the puiblic money, it's about cutting the dead wood from the public purse.

Cutting the EU payments from the buget will be a big boost, but the impact can be magnified if we do things smarter and better.

UK Politics in Paralysis

It seems to be dawning on politicians of all sides the enormity of Brexit.

Like a Rabbit caught in the headlights of a 40-tonne lorry our political leaders have found out that at some point they will actually have to govern the country rather than leave it on autopilot and rely on laws that atomatically implement EU dictats.

Stunned into paralysis, there has been lots of well, nothing coming out of the various party conferences. Forget the Lib-Dems, they probably represent 5% of the counrty's voters these days. The word is irrelevant.

Labour's party conference was a swathe of communist whimsy brought to the UK. Like we've just voted to leave the EUSSR, we don't want MORE fucking totalitarianism, nationalisation or any more government.

We want less, more affordable government thank you.

And Labour; ignoring Brexit does not look clever, it just shows you as perplexed by it as the Tories. Go on, just shove it under the carpet. Just like your Anti-Semitic problem.

Which is where we get onto the Tories. Again, consumed by Brexit and with no real leadership to speak of, there was nothing at their conference that merited any confidence in their ability to govern sucessfully.

The housing crisis is approching melt down. The Grenfell Tower fire highlighted the issue in London, but across the country house prices are close to becoming unsustainable.

The Help to Buy Scheme has admittedly helped first time buyers get on the housing ladder, but it has actually made the problem worse by helping to inflate house prices. By helping people buy houses with less deposit, more buyers are available and therefore demand is higher, inflating prices. God know what sort of catastrophe awaits those buyers on minimal deposits and huge house prices.

If interest rates rise (as they are sure to do) we will find huge numbers of people defaulting on mortages and huge numbers of houses lying empty because they will be unaffordable. The first to fall will be those on the HTB scheme, those just about affording to pay off mortgages at 0.5% interest rates. Will they be able to afford interest rates of 2%, 5% or more? There will be no social housing to house these displaced people. We will have vast numbers of homeless families on the streets. Families, not just single people, whole families. Thousands of families.

Just think of the drain on the public finances of that lot, not to mention the disaffection they would have for the ruling classes. A veritable breeding ground for revolutionary and extremist ideology.

Government (of all creeds and colours) needs to get a grip on housing and get a grip now. I understand that whichever party gets in, supplying vast numbers of new houses will be an unpopular move with householders, those in the suburbs and those on the edges of green belt land. In effect Tory voters.

But Labour have a lot to lose if they build lots of houses and start to lower house prices.

There needs to be legislation keeping this new housing stock outside private hands. That way, the housing stock resides with the government and that way the price of the house is immaterial. It doesn't affect private house prices and only affects the rental income of buy-to-let landlords as rents come down. Luckily the buy-to-let market isn't huge enough to be political dynamite and most landlords these days seem to be foreign investors cashing in on high UK rents. i.e. not UK voters.

Anyone that wants to own a house is welcome to buy vastly inflated private housing if they want to, but will not be allowed to buy new social housing stock.

The only downside is sorting out management of this new housing stock. Many councils have sold ALL their social housing to housing associations. The best bet would be to keep the new housing away from councils. Their mis-managment of original council housing caused the crisis back in the Eighties.

No, a new agency needs to be formed with powers over planning etc. so that they can get the job done. They will have a remit to produce AFFORDABLE, LIVEABLE and LONG-LASTING housing.

No tin prefabs or unit-construction knock-ups here. No shoeboxes either. It's criminal how small houses that builders claim to be homes are these days.

These days there is the knowledge, ability and technology to build sustainable, repairable, economic and totally liveable housing, so why not do it?

The Tories started the mess, it's only right they clear it up isn't it?