PC 9: Pre-Budget Revelations

[Rebecca Flair]

(I thought this had elapsed?)

[Rebecca Flair]

For all the Conservative Party's bluster the tax cuts in the Daily Mail today would have very little impact on the lives of regular Britons. Whilst it is welcome that the Conservative Party have decided to copy the Liberal Democrats in advocating for the abolition of the Starting Rate of Income Tax, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all, the majority of their other tax cuts will not help the vast majority of Britons one iota. Whilst the Liberal Democrats have advocated the dropping of VAT to 15%, ensuring that every family's income goes further the Conservative Party have decided to invest their money in a tax break for wealthy investors, the abolition of the Inheritance Tax, and a hack and slash approach to the public sector. It is clear that the only party that can be trusted to advocate strong public sector investment, tax cuts for every family in the United Kingdom, and a fair deal for all is the Liberal Democrats.

[Astrid Goldman]

I was delighted to be able to speak in the House of Commons this afternoon to launch the Government's Future Classrooms scheme and it was my pleasure to introduce Alan Wood, formerly Director of Education for Lambeth Council, to run it. Alan is a fellow teacher by trade and, like myself, is passionately dedicated to ensuring that our classrooms are fully equipped to prepare children to life in Twenty First Century Britain.

This Government is putting £1.5bn of investment into secondary school facilities, IT suites, technology rooms, and refurbishments, including brand new buildings where needed. This significant investment will ensure that every secondary school child in the country has access to the IT provision needed to benefit from the Government's ambitious new IT curriculum outlined last year.

An investment in our schools is an investment in our futures and our success. In line with the Government's cast-iron commitment to sound fiscal management and targeted investment, Future Classrooms represents the core of the Labour's Party's strategy for Government; education, education, education.

[Elizabeth Tanner]

I'm incredibly proud of the first budget in my time as Prime Minister. Over the past four years we have had to take some very tough decisions to get our economy back on track after eighteen years of Conservative boom and bust economics. With Labour's leadership we have righted the British economy where unemployment is falling, growth is up and we have a healthy budget surplus - and it is because of Labour's leadership that we are now in a position to provide greater investment into our public services like the excellent Future Classrooms scheme spearheaded by the Education Secretary. We are going to massively improve our school facilities expanding the opportunities to children across the country. This new scheme is only possible with the Labour Government's cast-iron commitment to prudent fiscal management and as we reap the rewards of that prudence we now have the opportunities to grow our economy and public services.

[Marty]

Closed. The fight continues in the budget cycle.

[Barclay A.A. Stanley]

Well, the Tories are back at it with their "throw it and the wall and hope it sticks" strategy. First, they criticize the government for the incredibly usual practice of orchestrating a few policy leaks ahead of a big reveal, then they criticize the Chancellor for not making a public pre-budget commitment to keeping taxes low. Then they criticize the government for what they expect will be a free-spending budget (not sure what made them think that was likely), only to later criticize them for keeping too big a surplus. One notable thing that the Conservatives didn't do during this press cycle was talk about what they wanted to see in the budget. Probably because they spent too much time on Section 28 and not enough time on their shadow budget, but that's just conjecture from my part. Ultimately, when you throw so many things at the wall, there's always the risk that none of it really sticks because it all gets obscured in the noise of your own voices. That's especially true when the things you're throwing at the wall directly contradict one another as they do here. When I excoriated the Tories in other Press Cycles for not showing up, I didn't mean to all show up with your own conflicting take on the proceedings. Croft needs to be a leader and set the message ahead of time to ensure everyone stays on message.

Labour do a good job here of whetting everyone's appetite for a budget. "Fiscally responsible" seems to be their watchword, which means everyone was primed and ready to go when it came to seeing the budget -- this had the double-impact of giving folks a positive reaction when they knew what was coming, and of blunting the Tories' double-edged sword attack of "tax and spend" but also "too big of a surplus" when the time came. Effectively setting expectations may be boring, but it has a purpose and Sir Jack is nothing if not boringly effective. He receives a good deal of positive press before and after the budget, and the markets respond well to his measured approach to both policy and its unveiling. It is great to see Prime Minister MacAndrews hit the press. She has been somewhat absent from proceedings lately and everyone is reassured by her being here. She hits the Tories with a little backhanded comment about 18 years of mismanagement, and Labour righting the ship and sets out Labour's stall as continuing on in that vein. She then comes on at the end to champion some of the progress that her government is making on the back of her ally, Gordon Brown, and his time at the Treasury.

The Liberal Democrats probably had the best press cycle of anyone. They managed to take fair shots at both parties and land them, which is fair enough, but where they really stood out was by taking advantage of this early budget attention to make their own budget announcements. That's the advantage of being in opposition: you are under no requirement to wait until it is unveiled in Parliament before unveiling your own plans. The Lib Dems took advantage of this unlike the Tories and even managed to hit the Tories a few times too. Both Flair and Cardigan had excellent interventions.

Labour +2 Momentum
Conservatives 0 momentum
Lib Dems +3 momentum

Anderson, Flair, Cardigan +1 XP