Week One - General Election campaign

Last week was an excellent week for Ed Miliband and the Labour and it is clear now that the British people are now listening and maybe prepared to give Ed Miliband go. 

Ed Miliband announcement on going after UK citizens with "non dom status" has played really well the voting public and he has laid some solid foundations for the next three weeks of campaigning. 

However the biggest problem that the Labour Party is a potential loss of votes and seats to the Scottish National Party. These loss of seats could be the reason the Labour Party do not get a majority. 

 

For me it is deeply troubling and I am not seeing real signs as to what the plan to do about it. I hope the Labour put more resources and time into keeping their Scottish seats and also enlist the help of Gordon Brown. 

I believe the former Prime Minister Gordon Brown really help to turn it around but they need to ask him now and not three days before polling day. If the Labour Party are serious about getting a majority. 

For the Tories the first official ended on a bad note with George Osborne giving a "car crash" interview and he simply could not answer where the Tories where going to get 8 billions pounds to fund the NHS. 

The Tories are about 2 percent down the polls and Labour really need to capitalise on this and even try to extend their lead if  they are to get a majority in the May elections. 

I suspect the Tories will now throw the kitchen sink at the election and I hope Labour are willing and ready to respond in a dignified manner that can help them get the keys to number ten. 

Spring Budget 2014 - Review

What stood out to me in George Osborne's budget speech was the parts on childcare, savings and personal tax allowances.  

This is George Osborne's  penultimate budget before the next General Election and to me everything he was offering today was about securing vital votes for the next General Election. 

George Osborne's  childcare proposals are welcome but for me and I am sure many families up and down this country it has come two years too late and do not really go far enough to alleviate the financial burden of childcare. 

Most economic commentators have described George Osbourne's increase of ISA annual limit to 15K as the 'rabbit in the hat'. 

Again I think it is a great initiative but stats show that people have started to save considerable less so raising the annual limit to 15k is great but not many people will benefit from it. 

Raising the personal tax free allowance  to £10,500 is also welcome and it means that very low income will get some additional financial help. 

But what George Osbourne's budget fails to address is the squeezed who are getting by on food banks and not much else. 

So the rather cynical side of me says that George Osbourne's will have mass appeal in the right demographic Tory voting areas. Only time will tell whether this appeal can be translated to votes on Election Day. 

Yay! UK economic recovery...but who is benefiting?

So the GDP figures are out and it now shows the best growth figures since 2007! So this should be a reason for all of us to celebrate right?

Sadly even the Business Secretary Vince Cable is convinced that the economic recovery is too closely aligned with the housing recovery which is not good for the economy.

This would explain why the the average families are not feeling the benefits of this recovery. More and more families are turning to food banks to feed their families. 

I am sure the Chancellor George Osbourne will be very happy with these GDP figures and the Tories will be hoping that this good news will boost them in the opinion polls. 

I personally do not believe it will have the desired affect as too many families up and down the country are not feeling the affects of this economic recovery. 

Working till we literally drop!

I am a bit late in posting my review of George Osborne's autumn statement.

What stood out the most for me was his statement about increasing the pension age to sixty eight. 

Even if economically it makes sense it does not seem fair that millions of people in there 20s or 30s could be looking at an extra eight years of work. 

It is already hard to secure a job with a pension. George Osborne made the assumption that as people are living longer therefore they will be healthy enough to work longer. 

He may well be right but even if your healthy enough to work in your mid to late 60s. It does not seem like an efficient way to deal with the pension crises. 

 

George Osborne and Boris Johnson's China trip- Podcast

Please see the link below to my podcast on George Osborne and Boris Johnson's trip to China.

VR Online Service: George Osborne and Boris Johnson's China trip

Conservative conference - Manchester

After the Labour Party's successful conference, the onus has been for the conservatives to achieve similar success. 

There conference has certainly started  with a bang and a string of policy announcements. First big policy announcement was the married tax allowance and this new initiative was to help married couples on a low income. 

However the Labour Party have said that this allowance will help about 15% of married couples and believes that this tax discriminates against single people. 

I would agree with this sentiment as whether a person is married or single they are working hard to pay their bills and put food on the table. To me everyone should be equally rewarded and not the select few.

Today the Chancellor George Osborne also announced there would be a crack down on long term welfare claimants. 

Which means  getting claimants to work for their dole money or making them attend the job centre every day. 

The Home Secretary Teresa May also announced that some illegal immigrants would be deported before they where allowed to appeal. She added that the Human Rights Act would be abolished in 2015. 

The Conservative have now  clearly lurched to the right wing of their party and this partly due to the growing popularity of UKIP. 

A lot of UKIP's members where dissatisfied Tory voters, so the Tories are hoping that a further crackdown on benefit claimants and illegal immigrants will encourage these dissatisfied Tory voters back. 

I think this will either go really well for the Tories or very badly now that they have  completely left the middle ground. 

It will be interesting to find out in the coming days whether they have taken the British people with them or not as the case maybe.  

Spending Review 2013

The coalition government has two more years in power before the next general election. The economic situation in the UK is serious as unemployment stands at 2.4 million and growth is about 0.3% annually.

In 2010 David Cameron promised that he would be able to balance the budget by 2015. Now in 2013 Cameron has yet to admit that the deficit is actually going up and not down.

George Osborne’s spending reviewing included the following:

·         No more welfare cuts.

·         People currently claiming job seekers allowance would now need visit the job centre on a weekly basis.

·          Making it prerequisite for new claimants who do not speak English to learn it.

·         Automatic pay increases in the public sector would also come to an end 

·         Increase the number of free schools.

Mr Osborne has spent the last three years tackling the deficit and yet it is widely known that the UK deficit has risen. By this time next year it will be abundantly clear to all whether or not Mr Osborne economic policy has been successful. Which in turn will determine whether or not this coalition government will be re-elected in May 2015.