matgb: (Politics)
[personal profile] matgb
Really pleased that the radical shift to the left in taxation policy was passed at today's Lib Dem conference--couldn't make it into the hall to hear the debate unfortunately, but a genuinely redistributive policy that will genuinely help those earning the least in society has to be a bloody good thing.

Shift to the right?

For some reason there are a bunch of people convinced that it's some sort of shift to the right, and I haven't yet seen a decent explanation as to what definition of 'right' they're using. Admittedly, I've been utterly swamped on the registration desk and attending fringe events, so I've not had time to read through the debate, and as it's 3am and I'm back on the desk at 8.30am I'm not going to now.

Can someone please explain what the 'rightwards shift' is supposed to mean, as having finally read a copy of the Make It Happen paper I can see something that's both genuinely Liberal and nicely left wing in a genuinely radical way.

I'm not too keen on the tone of some of the marketing language they've used, and the over use of 'families' combined with 'no child left behind' did piss me off a bit, but having read the underlying ideas behind the rhetoric and knowing that it's aimed not at a BA politics type like me but at journalists and actual real, sane, normal people, I can get over that.

Decent left wing tax & reform agenda

So now we have a decent left wing tax policy reducing taxes for those earning the least combined with the traditional radically left wing political reform agenda. Now all we need is a commitment to level the playing field for those wanting to set up or convert to co-operatives, and this l'il liberal socialist will be very happy.

For the majority of non politics geeks that hang around this place, I'm at party conference in Bournemouth, I'm exhausted, and now I need to sleep. That's assuming Jennie's snoring doesn't keep me awake all night. Wish me luck...
Depth: 1

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 06:54 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dmatthewman.livejournal.com
Disclaimer: I'm sometimes a little blurry on the distinction between 'left' and 'right', and while I voted for the amendment, I also think the unamended motion is a thoroughly good and Liberal thing. But with that in mind:

Speech after speech opposing the amendment included an acknowledgment that we were going to cut funding to (at the very least) the NHS and education in order to fund these tax cuts. Reducing funding to the NHS and education may indeed (as Vince and several others said) be prudent in a recession, but using those cuts to fund lower taxes, even to the poorly-paid, could reasonably be looked at as a shift to the right.

No one opposing the amendment answered the point made (twice) that the very poorest members of our society don't pay tax, and wouldn't be helped at all by tax cuts even to the lowest-paid taxpayers. Even the lowest-paid taxpayers are relatively well off to someone in that situation, who's still being hit by rising fuel bills and rising food prices, and who will also need to choose between heating and eating. It may well be that we do have plans to help people in that situation just as much as those we're helping with the lower taxes. But Vince, Tim, Chris and Simon all failed to mention it, which is a pity.

I mean, I'm sure our position isn't really 'if you're low-paid but doing an honest day's work, we'll help you, but if you're a student, elderly, ill or can't find work that's just tough'. But that's what it sounded like, and that's why it looked like a shift to the right to some people.

Well, you did ask. ;-)
Depth: 3

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 09:48 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ninebelow.livejournal.com
the money cut from the NHS budget is money currently wasted on management consultancies and perpetual reorganisations and attached glossy brochures.

Well, yes, this is always where political parties say savings will be made. How feasible this is is another matter. The Government has just finished one huge efficiency programme and just started another huge value for money one. There is not an infinite amount of fat that can be forever sliced away, at some point you are into the meat. I don't see any way this tax cut can be achieve without some cut in services.

This is also, returning to your original point, a classic right-wing small government policy which is another reason it could be seen as a move to the right.
Depth: 5

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 12:22 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ninebelow.livejournal.com
Why not simply not take the tax in the first place?

I agree entirely, tax credits are a ridiculous idea and we just need a genuine progressive income tax. This is one of the things that has always attracted me to the Lib Dems. Having discarded the 50% rate and now promising tax cuts it seems they are moving away from this.

I've just read Make It Happen and I find myself in agreement with it. By it's nature it is very vague though. Perhaps they will be able to cut some big unpopular programmes like ID and Trident, introduce some new green taxes and have some money left over for tax cuts without effecting services. I doubt it.
Depth: 5

Date: 2008-Sep-17, Wednesday 09:18 (UTC)
ext_16733: (Default)
From: [identity profile] akicif.livejournal.com
Except small government has always been a liberal position, but that position got partially hijacked by Thatcher's tories who never really managed to implement it effectively despite all the rhetoric
Their idea of shrinking government was more to do with centralisation, and drawing power back into London....
Depth: 4

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 11:50 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] caramel-betty.livejournal.com
The bits I've heard from Vince, in particular, are less about cutting things like glossy magazines but more about cutting out unnecessary layers of quangos, so that you don't have the Health secretary instructing civil servants who instruct a random advisory board who issue recommendations to strategic health authorities who consult with PCTs and stakeholders who then come to a pro-active decision that balances the rights and responsibilities of oh God I think I want to kill myself. Obviously, there's a need for that sort of thing in terms of licensing new drugs and such, but the health issues in a given area would potentially be much more accountable and responsive to local needs and demographics. Many more care decisions would supposedly be made at a much more local level (PCTs, GPs, hospitals etc.), rather than from a centralized target.

This I like, and this I think is a good thing. If people can actually speak to the guy who makes the decisions, there's much more local participation. I hope it would also shave money off the budget, some of which could go on more front-line services, some of which could go elsewhere. (The key word in that sentence was "hope"; I am not so naive as to believe it's a cake-walk.)

This might, as a by-product, also cut the amount of crap publicity.
Depth: 1

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 08:08 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] caramel-betty.livejournal.com
From what I can tell, the media are saying:

cutting public services and tax cuts = right-wing
large state services, with tax and spend = left-wing

Which to a rough, simplistic approximation is probably how Britain sort of split for much of the second half of the 20th century. But they're basing this on the usual assumption that you cut public services and give the money to the rich, whereas this is giving it to the poor. Additionally, for at least some of the savings, they're not talking about cutting public services, but scrapping some things like ID cards.

To be left-wing in the media view, this would probably need to be "We'll use the money we save to put more money into tax credits for the poor", I think. However, that would somewhat muddy the message about the 16p rate and similar, which are also intended to help middle income families. This would, obviously, undercut the policy's power to hold off Tory votes.

It would help in communication if they could identify a particular tax they'd want to cut, in my view. The short sound-bite then becomes: "16p basic rate, scrapping Labour's wasted spending, cutting <foo> with the savings." That's short enough to get into a TV news clip.
Depth: 3

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 11:59 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] caramel-betty.livejournal.com
"16p basic rate, scrapping Labour's wasted spending, use the savings to take the poorest out of income tax altogether." 20 words, ish.

I think if shadow ministers could bang on that in interviews as a response, it might help. At the moment, they're articulating vague tax cut proposals, which can be made to sound like Tory-lite.

At the moment, they're having to get two or three questions into interviews to get to that point, when fighting past "Doesn't that make you like CallMeDave?" and "Isn't this the reverse of what you stand for?" when "Help the poor" is one of the core things the Lib Dems do stand for, IMO. A consistent message of "taking the poorest out of income tax altogether" in response to allegations of right-wing tax cuts could and should cut past that - "Isn't this the reverse of what the Lib Dems stood for?" "No, Mr Bumblebee, the Lib Dems have always stood for helping the poor, and that's what these proposals do." not "No, Mr Bumblebee, we wanted to raise taxes when they were too low, but now they're too high, so we want to cut them, and give that money back from the bottom up." I hate the phrase "from the bottom up", by the way - I think I heard Nick using it on the Today programme this morning.

You can substitute other words for "poor" - disadvantaged, vulnerable, whatever. But I think the "too low/too high/just right" Goldilocks talk is just too waffly. Like this comment.
Depth: 5

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 15:46 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] caramel-betty.livejournal.com
One of my ambitions in life is to be Toby Ziegler. I wish I was good enough. :-(
Depth: 1

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 08:11 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] paulatpingu.livejournal.com
It's a 'shift to the right' because that's a simple, convenient term that can be used by the media to sum up the Lib Dems new taxation policy to the uneducated masses.

It also doesn't help that it's a weighted comment that is generally followed by the hack pointing out that not even the Tories are stupid enough to want to cut taxes this time around - making the Lib Dems out to be typically out of touch.

The problem is, for most people, it will just come across as a cynical move. Obviously it's the party's job to persuade these people otherwise (me included, I've not read the details yet). At least they've got another couple of years to point out exactly what they mean.
Depth: 2

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 09:58 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ninebelow.livejournal.com
it will just come across as a cynical move.

It is, isn't it? It is a deliberate attempt to poach/retain Tory voters.
Depth: 1

Also, in response to your headline:

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 10:10 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ninebelow.livejournal.com
When was liberalism anything other than left wing?

When it was classical liberalism.
Depth: 3

Re: Also, in response to your headline:

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 12:29 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ninebelow.livejournal.com
Classical liberalism was always opposed to the protectionist Toryism

Yeah, but that has no bearing on the current debate. Left/right is always going to be imprecise but I don't agree that it is useless. I have no problem with calling classical liberalism right wing. I am a liberal but I am not a libertarian so it is understandable that I react uneasily to attempts by the party I vote for to capture the libertarian wing of the Tory Party.
Depth: 5

Re: Also, in response to your headline:

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 14:51 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ninebelow.livejournal.com
Ah, since I fall on the Social Democrat rather than Liberal side of the party I guess none of this applies to me. (Gladstone, my arse :p) It does leave me without any one to vote for...

especially in cities like Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford where the Tory party hasn't got a cat in hells chance of getting anywhere.

Last time I looked they made up half of Bradford Council and it was the Lib Dems who were nowhere?
Depth: 7

Re: Also, in response to your headline:

Date: 2008-Sep-16, Tuesday 16:52 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] caramel-betty.livejournal.com
On the (rather poor) Political Compass type things, I usually end up pretty much central on the economic scale, and most of the way out towards liberal on the other scale. The last time I did one, they had Simon Hughes plotted on it in about the same place I was.

I believe in things like trying to give everyone opportunities (like helping the poor go to the university of their choice), progressive taxation and the like. I also tend to favour small amounts of Law but a relatively large State - where, in my mind, Law is the regulation of everything to hell and back and invading people's private lives, but the State should be providing public services and safety nets for people.

But at heart I try to be pragmatic. Sure, a small law approach might embrace completely free markets, but I want some regulation. And while I have a lot of sympathy for socialism (in the "helping out other people who aren't me" sense, rather than necessarily nationalized industries and such), I find it hard to endorse for Britain on a grand scale, because there are situations where it doesn't work out well, and other things can be better.

I don't know what that makes me. Confused?
Depth: 1

Date: 2008-Sep-17, Wednesday 06:46 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] andrewhickey.livejournal.com
I agree totally with your comments on Make It Happen - I think everyone who's annoyed with it got annoyed at the form, and only pretended to themselves it was to do with the content. It's actually a very good attempt at co-opting the right's rhetoric to sell left/liberal ideas (Clegg's main skill, I think).
Having said that, I would like the party to move further leftward - there are definitely things in there that make me uneasy - but overall I don't find it worrying.
Also, whenever people talk too much about policy documents, manifestos etc, I remember being in the car with two council candidates last May:
"Well, we're against that according to the manifesto"
"Are we? I haven't read it. What does it say?"
"Oh, it's just *stupid*. If I actually had to pay attention to it I'd join the bloody Greens..."

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Mat Bowles

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