I've now read Ed Miliband's speech today.
200,000 new houses.
Tackling market failure.
Dealing with failed privatised utilities.
Raising big business corporation tax.
Supporting those on minimum wage.
Addressing major environmental issues.
Are these all tentative steps towards if not a Courageous State then a least a more Courageous State?
I rather hope so.
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But sticking to Osborne’s cuts, effectively conceding the neoliberal economic argument.
That’s the weakness
Big Business and their ciphers are already squealing like stuck pigs…
http://www.cityam.com/article/1379988603/labour-s-plot-hike-corporation-tax-short-sighted-nonsense?
It doesn’t take much to guess who Allister Heath’s paymasters are!
Quite so
Whilst ever the Labour Party rely on PWC – (over)Priced Watery Cop-outs – for their tax advice and briefings on tax in parliamenary debate, or continue to seek approval from the austerity obsessed OBR for their spending plans, it’s hard to see where the courage is coming from to ensure that the market doesn’t continue to be the Great Dictator under Labour but with a slightly differently styled moustache. For instance, what use is a living wage if the market dictates that the poorer and poorest pay for each other’s pay rises by paying more for goods and services? Or if companies can reduce hours to keep overall staffing costs low, whilst gleaning the benefits of extra spending in board and share payouts? What good is raising the nominal rate of corporation tax for large companies if tax dodging by those companies is facilitated by UK tax loopholes? It’s very easy for Labour to say the things they’re saying without giving us the devil of the details, which is where the boundary between trust and mistrust lies.
That’s why I think there is still a void to be filled – see this morning’s Venn diagram
It’s been made quite clear to me today that they haven’t the courage to take on LVT, even though they tell me they know all about the land issue. Letter in FT yesterday reveals that house prices are on average 70% land value! Also that we have a lower value housing stock, minus the land element, than Italy – almost one third of Germany’s. Absolutely shocking.
Now is the time for Labour to push their advantage. The freeze on energy prices is a cute move, pro working people and pro small business. We will see.
I was actually pleasantly surprised by Ed Miliband’s speech for the most part. It’s a few steps in the right direction, and better than I’d hoped for (although I’d presumed the policies would be pure recycled New Labour, so I’d set a very low hurdle to clear!) I agree with Philip on austerity – it’s a capitulation to the Tories, although having spoken to various Labour people about this they have pointed out that Ed Balls has only pledged to match Tory spending plans for one year. Now, that’s one year too many – I don’t think Labour should be matching Tory spending plans at all, but at least it gives them 4 years of the next parliament to do something different from what the Tories would have done.
Also I agree with Carol on LVT – it’s a huge missing piece of the puzzle which could transform the political situation. Instead we get the commitment to a mansion tax which is far inferior.
The freeze on energy prices is interesting. Just how it will fare if the suppliers (mainly Russia) decide to hike their prices will also be interesting. Given that labour are anti-fracking, the UK will be totally dependent upon others. they could always reduce/end the energy bill surcharge that empowers the renewables “industry” (some 20% of the current energy cost to a household).
Having heard his (Ed) speech, high on hyperbole and low on belief, I should say it is another case of taking people to be fools.
John
You really are talking the biggest load of utter nonsense on this issue
If you continue to post Daily Fail propaganda please don’t expect it to be put up
Richard
Chuka Umuna missed a good opportunity on newsnight last night when a glib and world weary Paxman came out with the usual tripey cliche about labour being business ‘unfriendly’ . He could have pointed out that business has hardly been friendly to this country with its low wages, dodgy investments, zero hours with people needing housing benefits whilst working as well as the tax dodges and the too big to fail socialism for the rich. Why aren’t they more outspoken????
I wish I knew
Which part is nonsense (I’ve never read the ‘mail) (I don’t buy any ‘papers)
Claims re the cost of renewables, etc
Really ?
So:
“Even the website Renewable World quotes a July 2013 report which tells us this, and the emphasis is mine.
The analysis of the business cases of generation across the region/technology pairs included in the scope of the RE-COST study shows that, at the present, new onshore wind, off-shore wind, and large solar PV plants still require policy support to bridge the gap between generation costs and market prices of electricity.
So they still require subsidies and as I suspected in my paragraph above the ones for offshore wind are enormous with the worst example being in Germany where some apparently costs four times the highest tariff charged overall”
http://www.mindfulmoney.co.uk/wp/shaun-richards/what-is-the-state-of-the-uk-energy-market-how-can-we-fix-it/
At this present time, the short-term-operating-reserve comprises, among others, multiple large diesel generating plant which is called into operation, if needed, to provide cover for “intermittency” introduced when the wind generating plant drops off the grid.
My next door neighbour has 10KW of solarPV installed, last week we had a one-hour drop-out of electricity….so did he….his generating plant is grid-connected and disconnects if there is a power cut….and that is mandated as a safety feauture.
I gave you Shauns take on it [above] because he is of a like mind to you….there is plenty to be found…and everyone paying energy costs in the UK is paying the renewables surcharge.
“The suppliers pass on the cost of the Feed-In Tariffs scheme to all their electricity customers. This cost is usually classified as a ‘renewable energy surcharge’ on your energy bills. Thus, if you do not invest in renewable energy, YOU are funding those that do”
http://www.playfords-solar-energy.co.uk/feed-in-tariff/
So it isn’t only me talking nonsense then…..it’s on Ofgems site somewhere as well, suitably submerged.
I think that’s a considerable exercise in selectivity and prejudice
Which also ignores the cost of global warming
On one hand you rail against the energy companies profiteering, on the other you ignore the reality of windturbines installed for land-owner income and operator profit, mainly derived from subsidies imposed upon users, by the energy companies being compelled to buy the electricity at cost+profit from those turbine operators.
Yes, the cost on the solar cells are coming down, but the sun is not appearing any more often, and soon it will be appearing much less often and be delivering less energy (winter).
In case you think I have anything against solar/standby etc…I will soon have a standby unit of my own…a battery-operated-solar-charged 1KW 230 volt inverter. Just in case, a useful UPS for the domestic electronics.
My gripe with labour and their freezing the price of energy, is that 25% of current bills are imposed tariffs to pay for renewables.
Have a look at the current status of UK electricity:
http://gridwatch.templar.co.uk/
Note the contribution from windpower, at this time some 0.8GW, from an installed capacity of over 8GW. Go back to the coal output and then go forward to 2020, when that coal contribution will not be available (DRAX is converting to biomass, wood chips from the US, but there’s that renewable subsidy again).
I’m NOT against renewables, I just wish “they” would inform people that a part of renewable energy, a LARGE part, will be demand organisation. With no large-scale power storage available, or possible, at low cost, it becomes essential to manage use, and on a large, and dominant, scale.