The BBC report that the leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats in Westminster has put his neck on the line by saying that he would not support an increase in VAT in Tomorrow’s Budget.
Roger Williams, MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, told the Politics Show that VAT is a “very regressive tax that falls most heavily on the poorest in society”. He said there was a concensus that the deficit had to be tackled otherwise it would “increase and increase and that would lead to increase in interest charges that would decimate our public services”.
He added: “Something had to be done – the question is will it be done in a way to protect the most vulnerable people in our society and give a boost to the private sector so that they can take up the slack of people who find themselves unemployed.”
Mr Williams rejected the idea that the cuts were ideologically driven.
“I don’t think this is ideological actually. This is dealing with the practicalities of a terrible situation that was left by a Labour government,” he said.
“We have been left with a very large deficit and if we don’t tackle that then the first thing that’s going to suffer is public services and the second thing that’s going is the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.”
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Good for RW! But I don’t think he has anything to worry about in this budget. Some financial experts have suggested that there would be a rise in VAT rates in a year’s time, when that wouldn’t hurt the recovery. It would still be a regressive move, in my opinion.
Another guy who evidently can’t see the forest for the trees. Sometimes when you ARE the Government you just have to ‘suck it up, buttercup’, and accept things you might otherwise not be fond of. He sees that ‘cuts’ and ‘taxes’ are required by the objective situation, but that HUGE ‘forest’ is just not enough for him. Every ‘tree’ must conform to his ‘taste’ as well or he can’t bring himself to support the forest itself.
So it’s OK for him to ‘rebel’, but it’s not OK for the Tory ‘right’ to ‘rebel’ if the CGT rate is increased against their wishes and beliefs ? When is it NOT OK to ‘rebel’ ? Is it only those highly moral LibDem folks who get to behave like children ?
I’m sorry. I have no use for guys such as this. In normal conditions, if a member of the Governing party fails to support a BUDGET, he/she is GONE from the Party. No questions asked. The same should apply to this Government. You vote against YOUR OWN Budget and —– you are GONE. From the Government benches and from the Party itself.
This is the big time now. Big Time Rules should also be in effect —- For Everyone.
Targetting the welfare state for most of the cuts is not looking after the vulnerable who rely on the welfare state more than others. Cuts of £11 billion from welfare and only £2 billion from the banks says it all. This is typical Tory policy’ look after the rich and the poor can go to the wall.Greedy bankers caused this mess.
Before cutting require the banks to repay the taxpayer what is owed (£109 billion in 2009), sell off the government banking interests like RBS and put a reasonable levy on bank profits. Stimulate growth. Support students.
I would urge Roger Williams to vote against the cuts and vote instead for a civilised society where everyone is important and looked after including the elderly, the disabled, the abused etc not a cynical and depraved Tory agenda.