The union has concluded that its protests simply haven't worked, as the government has shown no sign of making any concession to its demands. More than that, the union has concluded that these protests have become counterproductive:
Demonstrations, particularly in Westminster involving hundreds of tractors, generated unfavourable headlines involving multimillionaire celebrities such as Jeremy Clarkson, who, as he stated in an article for The Times, bought his 1000-acre farm in Oxfordshire to avoid IHT.
Can we expect the Lib Dems to quietly forget their campaign against the Family Farm Tax too?
Meanwhile, opposition to VAT on private school fees has dwindled, as none of the dire consequences predicted (by the Lib Dems among others) for the move have come to pass.
I'm relaxed about our becoming the party of Middle England - it's where I've lived all my life - but maybe we're going to have to get better at choosing which battles to fight on its behalf.
We need more than just the Middle England vote. That means picking battle such as Council houses for all as 1st step on having your own house where you rent then after income increases you buy it, AS LONG AS ANOTHER IS BUILT IN ITS PLACE. We can pick the battle
ReplyDeleteI never did support these 2 LibDem campaigns. Goodness me, everyone else paying IHT has to pay the tax before they can access the inheritance, not get 5 years to pay it and then for most farming families only after the inheritance is greater than £1million. And why should people not have to pay VAT on school fees? VAT is paid on most other non-food purchases.
ReplyDeleteThe principle of charging IHT on farmland is unanswerable. There is a decent argument that the details have been got wrong. I think the Government should have said to the NFU “We want to stop the James Dysons of this world making farmland unaffordable for your members. Help us draft some legislation…”
ReplyDeleteBut then the Starmer-Mandelson-McSweeney Clique doesn’t really do co-operation, does it?