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Cameron cuts ties to Labour’s spending policies

Hurrah, get the flags and bunting out, this might even signal that New Labour and Blue Labour are just a wee bit different from each other!

Reality has caught up with one politician at least, but Conservative Leader David Cameron is not talking about spending cuts, he’s talking about reduced increases in spending, but it’s a move in the right (and responsible) direction. Everyone is struggling with the recession, and as jobs disappear money will be even tighter, as households we would not go on a borrowing and spending splurge to see us through the dark times, it would be crass, irresponsible, and dangerous for us in the long term.

However, that is exactly what Gordon Brown is planning to do (with our money) and it can only end in much more pain, misery, and increased taxation in the years to come. His opposite, David Cameron has been tied to the old policy of matching Labour’s spending plans for far too long and today’s announcement has not come a day too soon, although he could have been more bold and announced concrete plans to drop certain large scale projects upon winning the next election (National ID Card scheme, National DNA database, National Children’s Register, the NHS super database project, to name just a few).

Mr Cameron’s decision to drop the pledge is aimed at being able to avoid the “tax bombshell” he says would follow plans for big borrowing rises.

He said he wanted to build a “low tax, low debt economy for the long term”.

Now Cameron needs to go on the offensive and firmly pin the blame for Britain’s worsening economic situation where it belongs in Downing Street, not in America as Brown insists on telling us. The gloves need to come off and he needs to extricate himself from the bi-partisan agreement over Northern Rock and the banking crisis, which has already lost the tax payers £8 billion! Having seen the budget deficit douple in the past year Cameron needs to continue to harry Brown at every opportunity about the rising levels of public debt, the profligate spending, the yawning gap between expenditure and receipts, and the irresponsibility of the First Lord of the Treasury in preaching his deliusions to the rest of the world!

Reducing spending is what we ordinary folks do when money is tight, we shouldn’t have to tell the government that they should be doing so too, it ought to be second nature! Yes, it can be uncomfortable at times but we learn to get by, we learn to clear our debts and start to save again, that’s how we build a better future for ourselves. That’s how we plan to beat the recession, coupled up with lower taxes and a little more money in  our bank accounts we begin to spend for our families with a little more responsibility.

Cutting government spending can also be uncomfortable but we know it is necessary, we cannot expect real tax cuts without it being so.

Finally Cameron is starting to get the message (and this is no time to start barking about hospital closures and school closures, like listening to a broken record from the 1970’s):

“After 11 years of waste and broken promises from Labour, they [voters] can see that spending money alone does not guarantee that things will get better,” he said, adding: “I am not worried about Labour’s lies because nobody believes a word they say any more.”

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