Blair to "resign"

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by reds4ever
Well forgive me if I dont' cry too many tears....

Well, it means that anyone trying to buy a one-bed flat in North London gets stung for nearly ten grand in stamp duty - based on a percentage and threshold designed for the rich, not ordinary people trying to buy their first home after ten years of hard sacrifice, modest living standards and frugal saving.

Brown said in 1997 that he would not let house prices get out of control. He did, and ordinary people are having their living standards machine-gunned while he gives tax-breaks to the richest people in the world who move to London as a playground, driving up prices for ordinary people.

[reds4ever]

You've got it!! The country was in a right mess and Labour still couldn't be trusted to take over....

[reds4ever]

I'll be honest Cort, I'm a bit of a hypocrite where house prices are concerned. I'm a socialist but it's hard not to be selfish when the interest rates are relatively low and the house prices are rising. I bought my house before it all went mad, so 0.5 % here or there costs me less than a tenner a month and my house keep going up in value.

I don't intend selling until I retire, so hopefully it'll be a nice little earnerm if not then I've lost nothing. But yes it is sh1tty for those trying to get on the ladder.

[alva]

Funny how Blair is already seen more positive (and he's gone yet). You lot are going to miss him....even though I think Brown will do a good job and will win another term.

What's the alternative? Cameron? * pukes *

[reds4ever]

I'm very confident Labour will win the next election.

[Zulu Elephant]

Originally posted by reds4ever
I'm very confident Labour will win the next election.

I wish I had that confidence. I'd only give us a 50-50 chance of being the largest party in a hung Parliament.

We'll know more by the end of the year. Brown in place. First 100 days (the Express are reporting that Brown is going to push for Proportional Representation). Finally working out how the Brown-Cameron dynamic is going to play out.

Exciting, but scary (for a Labour party member), times.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by *End Is Forever*
Major was a comparatively new face.

?

Presumably only because of his ability to resemble the wallpaper in No. 10 Downing Street, and blend in with all the other yesmen in Thatcher's cabinets.

He had been an M.P. for 11 years in 1990. He had also presumably gone along with Thatcher's decisions when he was a Cabinet minister, junior minister, assistant party whip...

...still he wasn't her , or Michael Heseltine, which is what was important at the time.

[*End Is Forever*]

Originally posted by molly bloom



?

Presumably only because of his ability to resemble the wallpaper in No. 10 Downing Street, and blend in with all the other yesmen in Thatcher's cabinets.

He had been an M.P. for 11 years in 1990. He had also presumably gone along with Thatcher's decisions when he was a Cabinet minister, junior minister, assistant party whip...

...still he wasn't her , or Michael Heseltine, which is what was important at the time.

He was a comparatively new face to the public. He'd been at the top table for a reasonably short period of time, unlike Gordon Brown who has been an identifiable second-in-command for over a decade. Major was a "new broom" in a way that Brown can't be even if he tries...

[*End Is Forever*]

Originally posted by C0ckney
are you still a tory councillor EiF?

Yes, I was re-elected last week.

[Zulu Elephant]

Originally posted by *End Is Forever*


He was a comparatively new face to the public. He'd been at the top table for a reasonably short period of time, unlike Gordon Brown who has been an identifiable second-in-command for over a decade. Major was a "new broom" in a way that Brown can't be even if he tries...

Which is why Miliband would have been a better choice for Labour

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Cort Haus
Brown's legacy is already in place - stealth taxes. One of which was to keep old 'high income/wealth' thresholds in place while inflation crept up, giving us a situation where heavy taxes on income, home buying and death came to be levied on millions more people.

Of course, it was southerners (traditional Tory voters) who were hit first because of the higher nominal incomes and prices in the south. So for a period of about 8-9 years the south became accustomed, nay, expected to be hit by things such as stamp duty on property, higher income tax rates on earnings and larger inheritance tax bills as a matter of course. It's only in the last year or so that the north (Labour voters) is being hit by the transition across the thresholds and then all of a sudden Gordon says "We will raise thresholds on income tax, inheritance tax and stamp duty" without actually doing anything meaningful.

reds may not shed a tear for the wealthy paying more in tax but in recent years, and in future years, the people being hurt most were and will be the poor as they are facing the largest shift in tax burden attributable to fiscal drag.

[reds4ever]

I understood all of the first paragraph and the start of the second.......

[Dauphin]

Stealth tax is becoming more and more regressive as time goes on. Tax as a percentage of income/assets is going up quicker for the lower earners/less wealthy than it is for the higher earners/more wealthy until such time as everyone will end up paying the same (higher rate) amount as a percentage of income/assets.

[reds4ever]

So 'we' need to up the limits on stamp duty, inheritance tax etc so it impacts the average man less and find another way of squeezing the middle classes?

[Dauphin]

As far as I am concerned the average man is middle class.