In the event of a Conservative/Lib Dem coalition, would you rather see George Osborne or Vince Cable as Chancellor?

well I'm not a liberal lefty and I'd love to see Vince Cable as Chancellor. Not going to happen though sadly.

Edam - you cld look at this thread - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/politics/960378-Labour-inheritance-tax-benefit-for-married-people Probably won't change you opinion - but let me know what you think!

Raising the income tax threshold to 10k gives a tax break to everyone, rich and poor alike - doesn't actually help the poor as a group any more than anyone else. Unless you increase the tax rate of the upper income brackets at the same time.

The inheritance tax thing was an admission that the Tories are wolves in sheep's clothing. They haven't really changed. It's still the party of the rich for the rich.

And don't give me that bollocks about it being unfair to be taxed on inheritance. We all pay tax every time we get money and every time we spend it. There's income tax, VAT, petrol duty, council tax, national insurance... why should this particular exchange of money be exempt when no other is?

And the most important point of all is that the person who earned/saved/made/got that money ISN'T being taxed 'twice'. The person paying the tax is the person who suddenly gets a nice chunk of money they didn't earn.

lol I also had wistful thoughts about bringing Ken Clarke back to be Chancellor today!

I'd like to leave a fair and safe society to all our children. Guess that's why I'm not a Tory.

Give me Vince over Osborn any day. In fact give me Wirsal Gommage over Osborn.

i think council tax is a good token!

Neither.
Heard a business bod on radio 4 last weekish saying Cable was a liability as a financial spokesman - paraphrase, obv. I don't think Gideon George Osborne has ever said anything sensible about the economy. Ken Clarke, probably.
That speech, longfingernails, is,IMHO, the speech of a well-briefed man espousing right-wing economic theories. I understood most of it, and I only "did" economics in my first year at university.

Nighby - 30% of uk adults pay no income tax already. And the top 20% pay 80% of income tax. You have a point about wide based contribution (even if token) being important -countries like Denmark I think do this.

oh dont get me wrong, I also agree with giving the poorest in society a break. I would keep a token amount of tax though.

nighbynight

Firstly, Tories love the idea of increasing the income tax threshold - they just don't see how to afford it. I imagine there will be a gradual increasing of the lowest threshold over the next few years.

There is a definite argument for your point - that paying tax, even a tiny bit, gives you a genuine stake in society.

But ultimately I think it is much weaker than the argument that taxing the low paid disincentivises work and encourages benefits as a lifestyle choice.

Am I the only non tory who actually thinks that raising the income tax threshold to 10K would be a very bad thing?
Id rather they lowered income tax to a token amount, but the principle that everyone has to pay something is very important. Society (such as it is in teh UK) would suffer if there was a large class of non payers at the bottom of the scale.

Read his Mais lecture

www.politicshome.com/uk/article/5955/osborne_speech_to_mais_lecture_%28full_text%29.html

It is not a speech a stupid man would give.

On IHT did you see my thread reminding everyone that Labour significantly improved the inheritance tax position for married people in 2007?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/politics/960378-Labour-inheritance-tax-benefit-for-married-people

george osbourne ...clever? On what basis? is there any fact of that?

The actual details are irrelevant when it comes to most policy. Anyone motivated enough to know the details already knows which way they are going to vote.

It is about values. It is about the instinct to leave something for your children; the idea that you aren't taxed on income and then taxed again on assets when you die; the idea that the State will encourage you to do the Right Thing (TM).

X-post - agree entirely: it should have been dropped, and the fact it wasn't was a huge tactical mistake.

Am amazed that it is seen as a popular issue though. I live in a strong Conservative majority constituency, but did the footwork in the neighbouring marginal. The issue was seen as a total embarrassment in both.

Cable a few years ago actually proposed raising the inheritance tax threshold to £500k. So not necessarily a dealbreaker on that one.

Agree people are aspirational - just this cut at this point in time doesn't affect enough voters to be truly popular. Yes it takes your family home out of IHT - if it is worth £2m. The people with £2m houses in my ward weren't your average Labour voter.

As it happens, I agree with the inheritance tax cut as an aspiration but feel it should have been ditched as soon as the recession hit. Every spare penny we have should go towards paying down the deficit.

Err what?

The inheritance tax policy is MASSIVELY POPULAR, especially for aspirational voters who were won over by Blair but were basically Thatcher Tories, and are disproportionately located in marginals.

I doubt it will happen now, because it can get voted down by the other parties - but when Cameron was talking about it in the final debate the worm went stratospheric.

People want to make life better for their children. It is deeply engrained in the human psyche.

Neither. I'm fine with an agreement with the Tories, but I don't want us (the LDs) to take any cabinet seats.

The inheritance tax cut has been the single most unpalatable conservative policy on the doorstep locally. It just doesn't make sense in the current climate, and it is pretty foolish to argue otherwise. The one saving grace about a potential Con-Lib alliance is that the Tories could drop that particular proposal fairly quickly.

i think the UK would be courting an IMF bailout if it were Cable, not to say I fancy Osborne particularly.

LOL @ singlehandedly panicked GB into calling off the 2007 election

Yeah, yeah total genius And all on his own