Labour Government introduce changes that benefit the less well-off

[studentbob]

Quite. 12 year in which the gap between rich and poor has increased significantly, then all of a sudden an initiative that will be left to the next government to implement.

It won't happen. Brown and Blair talked the talk but delivered bugger all.

 

Increased tax credits when employers were attempting to exert downward pressure on wages.

Increased cold weather payments when energy companies and their imaginative price fixing policies meant the elderly couldn't afford to keep themselves warm.

Raised allowances for housing benefits when private landlords were keeping rents artificially high to cover their mortgages.

 

They might not be perfect but it's a damn sight more than the tories ever did.

[dazzler4]

they have not done that bad a job in the last 12 years, remember the 10p tax rate? oh and the decrease in vat which made a huge difference and almost lifted the uk out of recession!

[PuressenceUK]

They could give every voter in the UK a grand and they still wouldn't get in

[dazzler4]

They could give every voter in the UK a grand and they still wouldn't get in

 

 

but if they made it a few grand a year or two ago rather than pumping endless amounts into private financial institutions, then maybe the country wouldnt actually be in as much of a state as it is in now.

[redrobbo]

they have not done that bad a job in the last 12 years, remember the 10p tax rate? oh and the decrease in vat which made a huge difference and almost lifted the uk out of recession!

 

When the Tories left office, we were all paying 17.5% VAT on gas and electricity bills. Under Labour that was reduced to 5%.

 

Why don't Cameron & Osborne come clean about whether they intend to put the VAT back up on these household bills if they win the general election?

[Stormy]

When the Tories left office, we were all paying 17.5% VAT on gas and electricity bills. Under Labour that was reduced to 5%.

 

Why don't Cameron & Osborne come clean about whether they intend to put the VAT back up on these household bills if they win the general election?

 

Have you heard something we haven't?

Edited October 29, 2009 by Stormy

[rothschild]

As far as I was aware VAT was supposed to be a value added tax which was imposed on luxury goods and services. Since when have basic commodities such as lighting and heating been a luxury? In a developed country, which is what we are supposed to be, heating and lighting are seen as a necessity and not a luxury.

If I remember correctly......and I will stand to be corrected if I am wrong......when VAT was first born it wasn't levied on domestic heating/lighting.

Does anybody remember just when it was decided that these commodities were a luxury, and which colour of government levied the tax on them?

[Funky_Gibbon]

Quite. 12 year in which the gap between rich and poor has increased significantly,

 

The 'gap' is symantics. It doesn't mean the poor got poorer, it could just as easily mean that everyone got richer but that the rich got richer quicker than the poor, something which is obviously going to happen when the economy was doing well and the housing market is going through the roof.

[LibertyBell]

Well done to them for doing this, let’s hope that those who benefit from it aren’t stupid enough to vote for others parties that would prefer to re-distribute money from the poor back to the well-off.

 

What other choice is there? The Tories are the same beast they were in 1997. They will never change their priorities. Cutting taxes for the rich and slashing essential public services used by the rest of us.

[Pidgeon]

When the Tories left office, we were all paying 17.5% VAT on gas and electricity bills. Under Labour that was reduced to 5%.

 

If you remember, it was put up to 17.5% from 15% to bribe everyone after the poll tax catastrophe.