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Richmond upon Thames Liberal Democrats:Covering the constituencies of Twickenham and Richmond Park |
Vince Cable: the View from Westminster
February 2, 2012 5:55 PM
• [Feb 01] Vince Cable writes: THE political cycle is leading around to another round of elections in May, this time for the London Mayor and Assembly. The excellent Lib Dem South West London Assembly candidate, Munira Wilson, is already campaigning and I hope activists will giver support. My thanks to Roger Crouch and the team who worked hard in the Feltham by-election before Christmas. It was an uphill battle but after a good focused campaign we achieved our, admittedly moderate, objectives.
The most politically significant event in recent weeks has been the acknowledgement of Ed Balls that any future Labour government would have no alternative but to respect, and not reverse, the difficult public spending cuts we have had to make. I think he had very little alternative given the persistent poll data showing low levels of genuine credibility for Labour. But it is important for our party, given the stick we have had to take from Ed Balls in particular, and the populist appeal to many of our own supporters, of some of his earlier messages. We now have a cross party acceptance that the disastrous banking collapse and ensuing recession three years ago has not merely made the country poorer but has destroyed a major part of the revenue base on which public spending depended.
As we buckle down to a continuing period of economic difficulty the Lib Dem message is that the burdens have to be more fairly shared. That is why I have introduced a wide range of measures in relation to executives; not to penalise good managers and successful businessmen but to stop rewards for failure and a pay spiral at the top unrelated to company performance.
In the forthcoming budget we shall strongly make the case that any new tax increases should not be imposed on low earners but by closing some of the loopholes protecting high earners and the wealthy. My proposal for a mansion tax on properties worth over £2 million - which I know has some critics, at least on the Richmond side of the borough - will be one of the key elements in Lib Dems' suggestions for the budget.
The polling evidence, and feedback from the doorstep indicates that after a very difficult first year and a half our position is strengthening again, with a growing respect for our role in government.
* MP for Twickenham
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