The Conservatives’ analysis of the recent Pre Budget Report in local papers was highly politicised. A balanced view is needed, as befits a budget that strives to balance the country’s books whilst protecting the most vulnerable.
We have seen how Alastair Darling and Gordon Brown are committed to helping pensioners by upping the basic state pension by 2.5%, benefitting an estimated 1 million people in Scotland. They also commit to the future, by guaranteeing access to a job, work experience or training to all 18-24s who have been claiming job seeker’s allowance for 6 months. And Labour is also committed to helping working families, by increasing child tax credit.
Yet the Labour government are also facing up to the difficult choices. Towards meeting the their commitment to halving the budget deficit in four years, banking bonuses will be taxed at an additional 50%, public sector pay will track below inflation, and the £26.5 billion of savings already achieved will be built on by cutting quangos and consultants.
Meanwhile, opposition candidates crawl over the budget deficit figures without the courage to explain how the UK got into this situation. The reality is that under the Thatcher government in the 1980s, vast swathes of British industry were abandoned whilst global banks were encouraged to set up here, and reduced banking regulation paved the way for the excessive risk taking that ultimately caused this recession. Because of the actions of previous Conservatives, our economy is uniquely dependent upon the banking sector, compared with countries such as Germany who returned to growth much quicker due to a broader manufacturing sector.
Labour acknowledges this. That’s why the Pre Budget Report includes £150 million of funding to support the growth of the low carbon industry. By becoming leaders in exportable green technology, our country will be in a much stronger economic position for the 21st Century. These measures are also incredibly important on a local level, in sustaining local engineering and manufacturing jobs here in the North East of Scotland once the oil has run out.
What would the Conservatives do? Such is the luxury of being in opposition that they don’t offer a credible alternative. We do know, however, that the Tories’ priority is an inheritance tax giveaway of £200,000 to each of the 3,000 wealthiest estates. They would pay for this by scrapping the Child Trust Fund for those on incomes as little as £16,000 and cutting Child Tax Credits.
And what of deceit and dishonesty? The Shadow Cabinet continues to withhold whether their party’s biggest donor Lord Ashcroft, who is pumping thousands into seats like West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, pays tax in the UK or in a overseas haven. How is that honest, or fair? Meanwhile the Tartan Tories, the SNP, are just as bad, claiming their budget has been reduced for 2010, when the reality is that Alex Salmond asked for part of the Scottish Budget to be brought forward, which he then frittered it away in a unpopular independence campaign, and now has less to spend.
The Pre Budget Report epitomises the choice voters face at the next election: a Labour government that has made the right choices throughout the financial crisis - on Northern Rock and on help for businesses and families, and who are intent on rebuilding the public finances whilst protecting public services. Or, a Tory government of David Cameron and George Osborne, who got it wrong on the recession and are now getting wrong on the recovery, proposing to choke it off in a tsunami of gleeful spending cuts and tax breaks for the wealthiest.
