Posts Tagged ‘Conservatives’
A very big thank you and a new arrival !
Hi folks
I wanted to say a great big thankyou to the Campaign team and the loyal and hard working Conservative activists across the region.
We managed to achieve a fantastic result with a 3% increase in the vote over last time. In fact we managed to get a significantly better result than many of the Target seats across Scotland who benefitted from extra funding and resources.
The dedication and support that I have received has been enormous and it has been an honour and a privilage to serve as the Candidate for Inverness Nairn Badenoch and Strathspey for this Westminster election.
I also wish to thank all of the people who voted for me and who can now see that progress is once again being made with the Conservative party in this area.
With continued hard work and an emphasis on assisting local people with the issues and concerns I am certain that we will continue to see the share of the vote increase in forthcoming elections.
I am also delighted to let everyone know that my wife Jodie and I have just had our fourth child Nathan who was born at 5.29am on Sunday.
Both are doing very well.
So once again to everyone from Nairn and Granton, Avimore and Inverness and Drumnadrochit and to all who assisted me my sincere thanks.
Its been a pleasure and a privilege to represent you as a Candidate and to fight for the Conservative party in this region.
Jim Ferguson
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Labour United with Tories on Plans for Scotland to be used as “Guinea Pig”
Labour United with the Tories last night to accuse the Liberal Democrats of planning to use Scotland “as a guinea pig” for an unenforceable and “ridiculous” Immigration Policy.
Their joint attack on the idea that immigrants would only be allowed into the UK if they promise to work in regions where there is a need for them, followed a promise from LibDem home Affairs spokesman Tom Brake to “Seek to Trial this in Scotland”.
Glasgow South West Labour Candidate Ian Davidson said the proposals would end up with different immigration schems north and south of the border.
And Scottish Tory Campaign Manager said: “The Liberal Democrats want to use Scotland as a guinea pig for their irresponsible policies without giving thought for the pressure this will put on our public services. Perhaps “Nick Clegg would care to tell us how many thousands he would direct to Scotland and on what basis we have been singled out from the rest of the UK for this treatment”.
Taken from Press and Journal
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Jim Ferguson’s concern over housing in Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey
“Liberal Democrats have announced they will add VAT to new build houses. Home building industry body Homes for Scotland, whose membership provides 95% of all homes built for sale in Scotland as well as an increasingly significant proportion of affordable housing, today unsurprisingly slammed Liberal Democrat proposals to add VAT to new build homes if elected to Government and so do I.
We are in desperate need of social and “truly affordable” housing for rental with 10,000 people on the Highland Council Housing Waiting List.
Those on local average earnings have little chance of accessing mortgages since the Banking crisis.
Most work locally and need housing in the areas where they work. Spiralling petrol and diesel costs make it even more difficult for those on lower incomes who live in rural areas, hence my concern on this issue.
Members of the public have made clear their dismay over Labour Government’s failure to control immigration.
Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrat comments, recently broadcast, have incensed the electorate when stating Inverness and other areas need more migrants! Gordon Brown’s Labour “open borders” policy has been a complete failure. Massive increases in migration have resulted in overstretched Public Services. The increased cost of the Benefits System underpinning the policy could have major economic consequences.
If migrants are to be welcomed, we must ensure crucial infrastructure is in place, including jobs, education, health and housing and naturally the ability to cope with the diversity of languages involved which is particularly difficult in rural areas.
We need to develop Tourism further as it is a principal Highlands industry and vital for local economy creating crucial meaningful jobs and provide the necessary homes for these people.
We need a common sense approach to address Highlands problems.
Jim Ferguson
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Press Release 21st April 2010
Lib Dem proposal increasing cost of new homes sheer madness
Home building industry body Homes for Scotland, whose membership provides 95% of all homes built for sale in Scotland as well as an increasingly significant proportion of affordable housing, today slammed Liberal Democrat proposals to add VAT to new build homes if elected to Government.
On the day that Tavish Scott launched the party’s manifesto in Scotland, the organisation’s Chief Executive Jonathan Fair said:
“Somehow, the Liberal Democrats seem to be unaware that Scotland, not to mention the UK as a whole, is facing its worst housing crisis since the Second World War. Not only has our industry lost up to half its workforce, development is touching an all-time low and vital First Time Buyers are struggling to find deposits of up to 25%. Any measure increasing the cost of new homes, whether in the public or private sector, is sheer madness and will simply exacerbate the problems we as a country already face.”
Ends
Enquiries to:
Jennifer Kennedy, Homes for Scotland – 0131 455 8350
Notes to Editors:
Homes for Scotland (www.homesforscotland.com) represents the country’s home building industry which, prior to the onset of the credit crunch,:
- was the largest source of private investment in Scotland and the largest user of the planning system
- built 20,000 new homes, contributed £6bn to the economy and directly impacted the employment of 100,000 people (2007 figures)
Half the industry’s directly employed jobs have already been lost and Scottish new build housing output has plummeted, presenting far-reaching and long-term social and economic consequences.
Click here to read Homes for Scotland’s “building for their future” appeal to MPs as they prepare to enter the election season.
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Conservative Party – An invitation to older people
David Cameron has launched the Older People Manifesto - an important addition to the Big Society agenda.
The Manifesto unveils policies designed to appeal to the older community in Britain, placing them at the centre of the political narrative and continuing David Cameron’s pledge to champion the great ignored.
“I want to bring older generations right into the mainstream of our national life”, Cameron said in a speech today. “Yes, to treat them with respect and kindness, and to give them the dignity and security they deserve - but also to call on their wisdom and values”.
Click here to download the Older People Manifesto
The Manifesto highlights:
1. Work and equality.
Work to stop discrimination against older people and introduce better support for older workers who lose their jobs, by:
- Looking at how to end the retirement age to promote fairness in the workplace.
- Scrapping the effective obligation to buy an annuity by age 75, to give people greater control over their finances.
- Providing specialist back-to-work support for the over 50s.
2. Greater financial security.
Protect pensioners’ benefits and create new forms of help to promote more independence and security, by:
- Protecting key benefits: the Winter Fuel Allowance, free bus passes, free TV licences and the pension credit. And unlike Labour, we will not scrap Attendance Allowance or Disability Living Allowance for the over 65s.
- Providing a better basic state pension by linking it to earnings in 2012.
- Freezing council tax for two years in partnership with local councils, saving a typical Band D pensioner household over £200 a year.
- Giving more help to lower fuel bills through a ‘green deal’, helping to tackle fuel poverty.
3. Health and independence.
Health and social care that is fairer and more flexible, reducing the increasing isolation and vulnerability of elderly people, by:
- Health and social care that is fairer and more flexible, reducing the increasing isolation and vulnerability of elderly people, by:
- Protecting NHS spending so it has the resources it needs to meet people’s rising expectations about the quality of care they should receive.
- Providing single budgets, combining social and health funding, to give older people direct control over the care they receive.
- Scrapping Labour’s jobs tax, and using the £200 million a year this will save the NHS to create a Cancer Drugs Fund – making sure that everyone has access to the cancer drugs their doctors think will help them.
- Devolving public health budgets, so communities can spend money to prevent older people getting ill in the first place.
- Making sure that no-one is forced to sell their own home to pay their care home fees.
- Delivering better palliative care to people at the end of their lives.
4. Family and community.
Greater recognition of the important role that older people and grandparents play in their communities, and more opportunities for older people to take a more active part in building a stronger, more family-friendly society, by:
- Greater recognition of the important role that older people and grandparents play in their communities, and more opportunities for older people to take a more active part in building a stronger, more family-friendly society, by:
- Getting older people involved in new programmes of civic action and volunteering, at the vanguard of a new army of activists who will help build the Big Society.
- Creating new powers for local communities to save community assets, like post offices, that are of great value to older people.
- Giving greater rights to grandparents after parental break-up or in cases where a child needs to be taken into care.
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Scottish Conservatives launch campaign for fairer fuel prices
Speaking at the launch of a fair fuel price campaign, Annabel Goldie MSP, Scottish Conservative Leader says:
“Labour and the SNP are both responsible for the high fuel prices. The Labour Government at Westminster has taxed so much that we have record fuel prices when oil is half the price it was two years ago.
“The SNP Government in Scotland has increased rates for local garage owners by up to 50% and is forcing many of them out of business. The new rates valuation brought in under the SNP penalises independent rural petrol stations because they are charged the same rates as supermarkets, but can’t get the same deals on fuel prices from wholesalers.
“The SNP may not be able to do anything at Westminster because they are irrelevant, but they are in Government in Scotland so can’t pass the buck on this issue.
“Conservatives want to ensure fairer fuel prices and increase the number of petrol stations eligible for rates relief to bring pump prices down.”
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Conservative plan for a fuel duty stabiliser will be a welcome relief for drivers as petrol prices hit an all-time high
It was back in 2008 that George Osborne first announced Tory plans for a fuel duty stabiliser – an idea which was first proposed by Andrew Lilico.
The idea is simple: when the oil price is high, the fuel duty will be lowered, and vice versa.
And little would George Osborne have known in 2008 that the 2010 general election would be fought at a time when the price of petrol would be hitting an all-time high at £1.20 a litre – nearly £6 a gallon in “old money”.
And today’s Telegraph suggests that right now the introduction of the fuel duty stabiliser would probably see the price of petrol at the pump today being reduced by 10p a litre under the Conservative plan:
“The move will be funded from the increased taxes the Government raises from other levies on oil companies when wholesale prices rise… However, it is likely to prove controversial when oil prices fall as fuel duty will rise again.”
“The details of the scheme – including the price at which petrol will “stabilise” – will be the subject of a consultation launched soon after a Conservative election victory. It is expected to be launched within months if Mr Cameron is successful.
“Last night, a senior Conservative source said: “We are very straight with people. This is not a tax giveaway – instead it is a sensible, balanced policy that protects families from big increases in the oil price. When the oil price rockets, the tax falls and the petrol price at the pump stays stable – and vice-versa when the oil price falls.”
The public anger at the cost of petrol should not be underestimated and this policy provides another popular doorstep-ready policy for Conservatives to take to the electorate.
Jonathan Isaby
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Fuel Tax
Fuel tax is an imposed sales tax put on the sale of fuel. Frequently, fuel tax is looked upon as a source of general revenue, with some being put towards the maintenance of roads and highways.
Fuel Tax in the UK
Fuel tax in the UK is constantly changing and has risen steadily over the last 15 years. Between 1993 and 1999 there was a rapid increase with duties on fuel increasing by 3% above inflation. This was due to a major change in petrol taxation in 1993 when the Conservatives introduced the Fuel Price ‘escalator’. This was a way of the government making money and also to help protect the environment by discouraging people from using their cars.
Fuel Escalator Forces Prices Up
This fuel escalator forced prices up from one of the lowest in Europe to now one of the most expensive. When it was first added, fuel prices rose by 3 pence a litre and tax contributed to 72.8% of the total cost. By 1997 the escalator had added 11.1p to the cost of unleaded petrol and was at 75%. It didn’t get any better when the conservatives left office and Gordon Brown took over, as the escalator increased and 3 pence was added per litre. This took tax up to an incredible 81.5% of the total price of fuel.
Fuel Tax and the 2000 Fuel Protests
Despite the fuel escalator being abandoned in 1999, fuel prices did continue to rise rapidly, with a 2 pence a litre rise after the 2000 budget, contributing to the fuel protest. These rises were however argued by the government to be as a result of increasing oil costs rather than tax increases. This argument does hold some truth when we look at the graph above, showing that although the overall price of fuel has risen, the percentage of tax has stayed relatively constant and even dropped slightly this year.
In April 2005, tax on petrol and diesel were charged at 47.1 pence a litre which with VAT added also, the total taxation makes up a huge 69.9% of the price we paid for unleaded and 67.3% for diesel.
British drivers pay two taxes on petrol they buy at the pump and fuel campaigners complain about the fact that VAT is charged on the cost of fuel and the duty and feel it should only be calculated on the cost of the fuel for a fairer petrol price.
Duty on fuel in the UK increased again on 1 October 2007, with an increase of 2.00 pence a litre on unleaded and diesel and an even greater increase on LPG and natural gas. See the fuel duty for all fuels below:
2007 Fuel Tax Figures
2007 fuel duty (as of 1 October 2007) in the United Kingdom was:
- 50.35 pence per litre for ultra-low sulphur unleaded petrol/diesel
- 53.65 pence per litre for conventional unleaded petrol
- 56.94 pence per litre for conventional diesel
- 30.35 pence per litre for bio-diesel and bio ethanol – low tax to encourage consumer conversion
- 16.49 pence per kg for gas other than natural gas (LPG)
- 13.70 pence per kg for natural gas used as road fuel.
- 9.69 pence per litre for rebated gas oil (red diesel)
- 9.29 pence per litre for rebated fuel oil
As of 1 October 2007 effective rates of duty for non-road fuels increased by 2 ppl. These rates are set to be increased by the same percentage as the main road fuels on 1 April 2008 and again on 1 April 2009.
From 1 October 2007 duty rates for unleaded petrol, leaded petrol, aviation gasoline and other heavy oil used as road fuel were increased by the same percentage as the main road fuels.
2009 Fuel Tax Figures
2009 fuel duty (as of 1 September 2009) in the United Kingdom is:
- 56.19 pence per litre for main road fuels, unleaded petrol and diesel
- 65.91 pence per litre for leaded petrol
- 36.19 pence per litre for biodiesel and bioethanol
- 22.16 pence per kg for road fuel natural gas
- 27.67 pence per kg for road fuel liquefied petroleum gas (‘LPG’)
On 1 December 2008 a permanent 2p increase in fuel tax was introduced to offset the rate cut in VAT from 17.5% to 15% bringing the duty rate for the main road fuels up to 52.35p per litre.
On 1 April 2009 the duty rate for unleaded petrol and diesel was icreased by 1.84 ppl to 54.19p per litre and again on 1 September 2009 by 2 ppl to reach the current level of 56.19 per litre. These rates will be increased further on 1 April 2010 to 2013 by 1ppl above indexation each year.
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Conservatives will Recognise marriage in the tax system
A Conservative Government will introduce a recognition of marriage and civil partnerships in the tax system.
“This is sending a signal that we understanding the value of commitment”, said David Willetts.
“Britain is unique in the raw deal one earner couples get”, he added. Most European countries recognise marriage in the tax system.
The proposed recognition will take the form of a partially transferable personal allowance for all married couples and civil partnerships.
- One member of an eligible couple will be able to transfer £750 of their tax free personal allowance to their partner in order to reduce their partner’s income tax bill. This will be limited to basic rate taxpayers and is therefore worth up to £150 a year per couple at the 20% rate of tax. In 1999, its final year before it was abolished for all but pensioner couples, the Married Couples Allowance was worth £197 per couple per year.
- The additional transferable allowance will be tapered away at incomes above £42,500 so that no higher rate taxpayer earning £44,000 or more will benefit.
- Eligible couples where one partner is not using all of their tax free personal allowance and the other earns between £6,600 and £44,000 will be up to £150 a year better off.
- The full benefit of £150 goes to eligible couples where the main earner earns between £7,300 and £42,500.
The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies estimate that this will cost about £550 million. This will be paid for using some of the revenues from a levy on banks that will raise more than £1 billion. The remaining revenues will be used to reduce the deficit.
This is a progressive tax measure, with two thirds of the benefits going to families in the lower half of the income distribution. The biggest gains as a percentage of income go to households in the third decile of the income distribution. 4 million out of a total 12.3 million married couples will benefit.
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Conservatives – Three strikes policy to crack down on benefit fraud
Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Theresa May has announced a new ‘three strikes’ policy to crack down on those who repeatedly defraud the benefits system.
This comes as new analysis reveals that under Labour benefit overpayments due to fraud and error have cost £80 a second since 1997.
“For too long Labour have let benefit cheats play the system, costing the taxpayer millions”, May said.
“It is astounding that since 1997 welfare waste has cost the public £80 every second”.
- In total, Labour have wasted over £30 billion on fraud and error between 1997-98 and 2008-09. £14 billion of that has been wasted on benefit fraud.
- The Department for Work and Pensions has had its accounts qualified for the last 20 years due to the high level of fraud and error in the benefits system
- Between 2004-05 and 2008-09, only 143,838 people have been sanctioned for benefit fraud
The Conservatives have announced new plans to introduce tougher benefit sanctions for those found guilty of benefit fraud. This is about targeting the minority of those who are undermining the integrity of the benefits system.
Those who commit benefit fraud once will lose their out-of-work benefits for three months, a second offence will attract a benefit sanction of six months, and if someone commits fraud three times they face losing their out-of-work benefits for up to three years.
This is a big increase in the penalty, from the current situation where fraudulent claimants lose a maximum of 13 weeks benefit entitlement.
May said the Conservatives will “send out a strong message to people who fleece the taxpayer- you could lose your out of work benefits for three years”.
“This is about fairness. While the whole country is tightening its belt it’s scandalous that thousands are managing to defraud the taxpayer out of billions.”
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Britain: Billions of pounds in the Red thanks to Labour – Annabel Goldie MSP
Annabel Goldie MSP, Scottish Conservative Leader, says:
“Labour’s mismanagement of Britain’s economy has been catastrophic. Debt interest payments alone will soon reach £60 billion, twice the entire amount spent on Scotland’s health service, schools, police, roads and local services every year.
“Scotland’s share of Labour’s debt mountain is an estimated £72 billion. We need a government with a credible plan and the political resolve to put Britain back in the black. The risk of 5 more years of Labour is more waste, higher tax, a worse credit rating, higher interest rates and higher mortgages. Britain is billions of pounds in the red as a result of Labour’s mismanagement of the economy.
“In Scotland, the Conservatives have helped tens of thousands of businesses weather the worst of Labour’s economic storm by ensuring business rates were cut or abolished, a move which the Federation of Small Businesses says has prevented 1 in 8 small firms from going bust.
“We have to deliver that kind of real help right across the United Kingdom.
“That is why a Conservative Government would scrap Labour’s tax on jobs, get credit flowing again, protect and create jobs to boost the recovery, and get to grips with Labour’s debt. Dither and delay would risk the recovery, not help it. The time has come for action, and for change.”
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