The Tory Manifesto – Part 1

OK, so let’s deal with the biggest issue first: tax rises. If you are Dave, and you need to be seen by Tory voters as a tax cutter, how do you put up taxes and not been seen as a Lefty? Here’s my plan.

First, we will inevitably need to have higher taxes for at least five and maybe even up to 10 years. Why so short a time I hear you ask, when all the doomsayers are saying it will take many years to pay off the huge Brown debt? The doomsayers are purposefully forgetting two things: the huge profit that will be made when the next Government sells off the taxpayer's share of Lloyds Group, RBS etc and that the soon to arrive inflation problem will wipe out a large chunk of the debt.

So I think his best strategy would be to give us proles a longer term, clear explanation of where he wants to end up but then explain the short term pain. So, remembering my Tory manifesto preamble from Friday, how about this?

By 2020, the Tories would aspire to:

1. Using today's comparable numbers, increase the basic income tax allowance to £12k pa (currently around £6.5k), thus in round numbers taking anyone on the minimum wage out of income tax altogether – practical and good for the stay-at-home Labs and Lib Dems (see Friday's post).

2. Aim to reduce top rate income tax down from the Brown promised 50% back to the current 40% rate but with a longer term aspiration to reduce it further to 35% - good for the Tory tribal vote.

3. Scrap inheritance tax altogether – good for everyone, including many stay-at-home Labs and Lib Dems.

With that clear statement of where Dave wants to head, he can then give us the bad news of how tough things are going to be in the interim and get away with it.