A tax on food obviously resonates deeply, particularly after a budget that reduced the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p (my emphasis):
"This is basically a tax on the working man of Britain," she says, "and on the many elderly and unemployed people who come by here for a pasty every lunchtime.
"My hot pasties would go up by 50p from £2.75: for some people, that will make a big difference. I'm planning to put a sign up in the window: 'Hot for the rich, and cold for the poor.'"But only a couple of years ago Cameron was desperate, as opposition leader, to 'decontaminate' the Tory brand: no issue was too cuddly to avoid and, acutely aware of his Eton background, he was eager to play down any thoughts that the Tories are for the rich - as his awkward interview with Andrew Marr in 2009 demonstrated.
Yet here we are with a tax which will hit the working man the hardest, and from Cameron et al there's silence. Osborne could have tried covering it up by saying it was all Brussels' fault - "we'll fight them on the beaches etc" even though we all know in reality it would be empty rhetoric as it so often is.
But no, instead they're prepared to take the electoral polling hit, prepared to scupper their next electoral chances and prepared to recontaminate the 'brand' (and once that sticks it ain't going anywhere). In short preparing to destroy their own party just for the sake of appeasing our EU masters.
All of which demonstrates very clearly who the EU benefits, and it certainly ain't us.
The EU serves to maintain the hegemony of the elites of Europe.
ReplyDeleteThose little 'pasty eaters' shall never inherit the earth - that's not their role.
Dave's party, indeed the whole of the political elite of the UK and their cognoscenti chums in paradise/Notting Hill are safely ensconced in their gilded palaces.
And, the proles?
"Well - who cares how much 'their' food costs - parce que,le projet est sacrée, inviolable!"
It is certainly enlightening that Cameron/Osborne prefer to pretent that the pasty tax is all their own idea (to equalise tax) rather than admit that it is down to an EU/ECJ ruling.
ReplyDeleteThey must be even more fearful of the anti-EU vote going to UKIP than they are of the charge that they are out of touch toffs.
There is the elephant in the room and the prospect of having to pay back all the vat on fish and chips and all the other take away food they may have been illegally taxing.Until the MSM and the public wake up to this they will quite probably get away withit.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Francis Maude is as stupid as he looks or was his recommendation to go out and buy fuel an attempt to get people looking in another direction?
UKIP needs to up its game and become a truly viable alternative. It's head in the sand stuff to say they're up to it at this time. I need someone to vote for next General Election.
ReplyDeleteJames, we need to work on the Tory Eurosceptic MPs - gently coaxing them in the direction of UKIP.
ReplyDeleteBF, great post. Loved your Uphill Battle post, too.
PS: First, Helmer's defection (along with a few others) and now more defections:
ReplyDeletehttp://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2012/03/ukip-snub-boris-on-second-preference-vote.html
We can work on our councillors, too.
As was pointed out elsewhere, the loony Greens, and now the deranged Respect, have an MP each and UKIP still has a big fat zero, go figure...
ReplyDelete