The Liberal Democratic party conference continues in Brighton with what, for the Lib Dems, passes for controversy.
(For American readers the Lib Dems are the third party in the UK behind the Labour and Conservative Parties. In the 2005 general election they took about 22% of the vote but only about 10% of the seats in parliament.)
They have a new leader for this conference, Ming Campbell, after the former party leader Charles Kennedy had to resign after acknowledging a drinking problem. The party has also been plagued with a number of sex scandals (who would have thought they were so randy!) as well.
The controversy (and this will be very hard to US readers to get their heads around) is that the party has had as part of their manifesto so some time a promise to raise marginal income tax on "high earners" (>50K pounds or about 90K USD) to 50%. The new leader has proposed dropping that promise and replacing it with a series of "green taxes". The first vote on this proposal at the conference has resulted in a victory for the party leadership. As the Guardian puts it "Campbell plans approved amid disquiet over shift to the right".
Hard to imagine in American terms isn't it? A party promising higher taxes; the party faithful concerned that the party is shifting to the right. And this in a country the Conservative party is now probably in line with, or to the left of, the Democrats on most issues.
As to the basic policy that Campbell is proposing, which include carbon based airline tax and dramatically higher excise duty on again, I believe, based on carbon emission levels, I think that they are all well and good but if they are effective, i.e. that they discourage irresponsible behaviour as regards the environment, in even the medium term they will not be revenue neutral and the party will be forced to look again at higher marginal rates.
(For American readers the Lib Dems are the third party in the UK behind the Labour and Conservative Parties. In the 2005 general election they took about 22% of the vote but only about 10% of the seats in parliament.)
They have a new leader for this conference, Ming Campbell, after the former party leader Charles Kennedy had to resign after acknowledging a drinking problem. The party has also been plagued with a number of sex scandals (who would have thought they were so randy!) as well.
The controversy (and this will be very hard to US readers to get their heads around) is that the party has had as part of their manifesto so some time a promise to raise marginal income tax on "high earners" (>50K pounds or about 90K USD) to 50%. The new leader has proposed dropping that promise and replacing it with a series of "green taxes". The first vote on this proposal at the conference has resulted in a victory for the party leadership. As the Guardian puts it "Campbell plans approved amid disquiet over shift to the right".
Hard to imagine in American terms isn't it? A party promising higher taxes; the party faithful concerned that the party is shifting to the right. And this in a country the Conservative party is now probably in line with, or to the left of, the Democrats on most issues.
As to the basic policy that Campbell is proposing, which include carbon based airline tax and dramatically higher excise duty on again, I believe, based on carbon emission levels, I think that they are all well and good but if they are effective, i.e. that they discourage irresponsible behaviour as regards the environment, in even the medium term they will not be revenue neutral and the party will be forced to look again at higher marginal rates.
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