Dear Followers
After many months away I have decided the close this blog. Thank you for all your support in the past. Please take me off your list of blogs to follow.
Thank you and blessings for a happy future
Father Ignatius.
Thursday, 12 August 2010
Friday, 30 April 2010
AUSTERITY FOR STARTERS:
We need to raise the pension age to 70 for everyone (including public servants) immediately. We need to freeze public sector pay (and recruitment) for five years (and cut public sector pay over £40k by 10p in the pound rising to 20p in the pound on earnings over £100k. We need to impose a 5% levy on all public sector pensions over £30K. We need to put an outright ban on employing anyone in the public servant on a total remuneration package (including all benefits) of more than £120k. This is painful but it is far better than massive job cuts. If they think they can do better in the productive private sector then let them go there. This would help push down the cost of talent in the private sector so making our businesses more competitive.
We need to abolish all means testing (to encourage saving) and make all benefits taxable (so the better off pay back any universal benefits as their incomes rise). We need to abolish all current benefits and introduce a single non-working benefit that only goes to people who put in 12 hours community service a week. This would be enough for basic food and living costs - there would be a personal cap of £8k a year. Child benefit would be raised substantially (all tax credits would be abolished - since this is simply taking money from the poor and then making them jump through hoops to get a pittance back). National Insurance should be abolished/merged with income tax - a flat rate of 33% would be imposed on earnings over £12K. People could enter tax sharing partnerships (they would not necessarily need to be married or in civil partnerships but they would have to be living in the same house). All second homes (including empty ones) would pay 125% of council tax to reflect the social cost (and the fact that they attract crime). VAT would be cut to 15% but applied to EVERYTHING - no exceptions.
All regional development boards, all business grants and exemptions would be scrapped - the money saved would be used to reduce corporation tax to internationally competitive levels for all companies. There would be no industrial policy favouring any particular business - just an overall policy that favours all businesses (the market will favour the best).
And there would be more - but we need to completely redesign our tax and spend system - to simplify and to once more live with balanced budgets (preferably always running a slight surplus except during times of severe recession).
We need to abolish all means testing (to encourage saving) and make all benefits taxable (so the better off pay back any universal benefits as their incomes rise). We need to abolish all current benefits and introduce a single non-working benefit that only goes to people who put in 12 hours community service a week. This would be enough for basic food and living costs - there would be a personal cap of £8k a year. Child benefit would be raised substantially (all tax credits would be abolished - since this is simply taking money from the poor and then making them jump through hoops to get a pittance back). National Insurance should be abolished/merged with income tax - a flat rate of 33% would be imposed on earnings over £12K. People could enter tax sharing partnerships (they would not necessarily need to be married or in civil partnerships but they would have to be living in the same house). All second homes (including empty ones) would pay 125% of council tax to reflect the social cost (and the fact that they attract crime). VAT would be cut to 15% but applied to EVERYTHING - no exceptions.
All regional development boards, all business grants and exemptions would be scrapped - the money saved would be used to reduce corporation tax to internationally competitive levels for all companies. There would be no industrial policy favouring any particular business - just an overall policy that favours all businesses (the market will favour the best).
And there would be more - but we need to completely redesign our tax and spend system - to simplify and to once more live with balanced budgets (preferably always running a slight surplus except during times of severe recession).
Thursday, 29 April 2010
Freedom in Education
The best way to increase social mobility, education choice and attainment, and reduce inequality (while using a benign form of wealth redistribution) is ditch the socialist mentality of state provision and embrace the free market (free countries need free markets to thrive).
So abolish all STATE schools - make them all independent charities or co-operatives (abolish LEAs and central pay bargaining) - then give parents vouchers worth £7500 a year for ever child that they can spend on any combination of education/childcare that they see fit with any education provider they choose.
Education providers would then have to respond to market pressures - they would have to open 50 weeks of the year (like private day care nurseries). They might offer flexible study hours - they might include 1,2 or 3 meals a day.
Children might go to an academic institute mornings a week, a sports/play institute 3 afternoons a week and a vocational/apprenticeship unit for another 3 days (wow yes they might opt for a 6 day week - from 8am to 6om - if the kids are happy, healthy and well cared for then it doesn't matter).
Good schools could merge, expand, takeover failing schools. Parents would match the schools to their children's personal educational needs and their families needs - holidays when the family wants them not when the school tells them. And if you want to change schools you simply apply elsewhere - if you can't get what you want from a formal institute you could home educate (something that is still LEGAL thankfully) and spend the vouchers (which would come in a range of denominations to suit your needs) for the services you need (museums, private tutors, special needs classes, dance classes, maths groups, etc).
So abolish all STATE schools - make them all independent charities or co-operatives (abolish LEAs and central pay bargaining) - then give parents vouchers worth £7500 a year for ever child that they can spend on any combination of education/childcare that they see fit with any education provider they choose.
Education providers would then have to respond to market pressures - they would have to open 50 weeks of the year (like private day care nurseries). They might offer flexible study hours - they might include 1,2 or 3 meals a day.
Children might go to an academic institute mornings a week, a sports/play institute 3 afternoons a week and a vocational/apprenticeship unit for another 3 days (wow yes they might opt for a 6 day week - from 8am to 6om - if the kids are happy, healthy and well cared for then it doesn't matter).
Good schools could merge, expand, takeover failing schools. Parents would match the schools to their children's personal educational needs and their families needs - holidays when the family wants them not when the school tells them. And if you want to change schools you simply apply elsewhere - if you can't get what you want from a formal institute you could home educate (something that is still LEGAL thankfully) and spend the vouchers (which would come in a range of denominations to suit your needs) for the services you need (museums, private tutors, special needs classes, dance classes, maths groups, etc).
Saturday, 27 February 2010
The Conservative's broken election campaign.
Well Mr Moore you are almost there. Let's put aside the vacuous 'change' slogan (pitiful even from a third-rate Labour copywriter) - and the claim of a broken society (it's not - although there are plenty of broken people and certain aspects of society look frayed).
Just focus on the lack of hard, crunchy guiding principles (as epitomised in your description of the frankly chaotic way they develop policy) - and so a lack of clarity in communicating a long term vision of a better, wealthier, happier and more liberal Britain (and an equal lack of honesty on our future in Europe).
Let's forget about Boris - fine for London and a sharp wit but too lacking in gravitas for a nation (I like the poster who made the analogy with the Italian running English football).
Let's stop underestimating Mandelson and Brown - they may be fundamentally wrong on how to best help the mass of hard working families but they are brilliant at politics and keeping the base happy. True, that means large doses of state patronage but that is a failing of our system - and let us not forget the shame of previous Conservative administrations who were fool enough to entrench this power by setting up the QUANGO nation.
Let's stop insulting the working classes who have been consistently betrayed by the socialists but have rarely felt welcome on the right. The patrician air of the current Conservative leadership is a huge handicap not because of a hang-up about class but because they seem so aloof, so desirous of power for power's sake, so arrogant in their posturing as leaders rather than leading public servants - much like the current Labour administration. Which is why the promise of change seems so unreal - we see the Conservative team as a blurred reflection of Labour not a stark and refreshing contrast.
Instead let's focus on the fact that the Conservatives have ignored their base of genuinely compassionate conservatives (they have insulted their constituency parties and made a mockery of local democracy with their impositions - just like Labour but they should have been better than Labour) - they have not set out a clear guiding philosophy - they have indulged in smear campaigns and abused statistics (so appear as bad as Gordon 'I never knew about or ordered' Brown).
They have not set themselves above the gutter tendencies of Labour, they have not acted like statesmen - they have consistently failed to be clear about their source of funding (the uncertain position of Lord Ashcroft is a permanent embarrassment and should have been resolved years ago) - they have shown no bravery, no foresight, no character and little virtue - above all they have shown very little if any political savvy - they have let Labour off too lightly - they do not look as though they really want to serve the people - instead they look as though they are playing some silly game - it is not a game.
You are right that Ken Clarke is dismal, and Hague too lacking in fight, - Osborne might be brilliant but he hides it well - Willets is clever but is too keen to show it rather than empathy, and as for Cameron, the more I see and hear the less I like - he seems too glib, too inconsistent, too fickle, keen to massage messages rather than deal in substance.
Blessings for a Conservative party with a Conservative leadership that wants to serve the mass of people (including the disenfranchised and the poor) who will cut taxes for low-paid working classes, who want to reduce child poverty, raise education standards, free the front-line state professionals to deliver the services the people really need, who want a smaller, more efficient and more effective state that has clear priorities and delivers on its promises.
Father Ignatius Brown
www.father-ignatius-brown.com
Just focus on the lack of hard, crunchy guiding principles (as epitomised in your description of the frankly chaotic way they develop policy) - and so a lack of clarity in communicating a long term vision of a better, wealthier, happier and more liberal Britain (and an equal lack of honesty on our future in Europe).
Let's forget about Boris - fine for London and a sharp wit but too lacking in gravitas for a nation (I like the poster who made the analogy with the Italian running English football).
Let's stop underestimating Mandelson and Brown - they may be fundamentally wrong on how to best help the mass of hard working families but they are brilliant at politics and keeping the base happy. True, that means large doses of state patronage but that is a failing of our system - and let us not forget the shame of previous Conservative administrations who were fool enough to entrench this power by setting up the QUANGO nation.
Let's stop insulting the working classes who have been consistently betrayed by the socialists but have rarely felt welcome on the right. The patrician air of the current Conservative leadership is a huge handicap not because of a hang-up about class but because they seem so aloof, so desirous of power for power's sake, so arrogant in their posturing as leaders rather than leading public servants - much like the current Labour administration. Which is why the promise of change seems so unreal - we see the Conservative team as a blurred reflection of Labour not a stark and refreshing contrast.
Instead let's focus on the fact that the Conservatives have ignored their base of genuinely compassionate conservatives (they have insulted their constituency parties and made a mockery of local democracy with their impositions - just like Labour but they should have been better than Labour) - they have not set out a clear guiding philosophy - they have indulged in smear campaigns and abused statistics (so appear as bad as Gordon 'I never knew about or ordered' Brown).
They have not set themselves above the gutter tendencies of Labour, they have not acted like statesmen - they have consistently failed to be clear about their source of funding (the uncertain position of Lord Ashcroft is a permanent embarrassment and should have been resolved years ago) - they have shown no bravery, no foresight, no character and little virtue - above all they have shown very little if any political savvy - they have let Labour off too lightly - they do not look as though they really want to serve the people - instead they look as though they are playing some silly game - it is not a game.
You are right that Ken Clarke is dismal, and Hague too lacking in fight, - Osborne might be brilliant but he hides it well - Willets is clever but is too keen to show it rather than empathy, and as for Cameron, the more I see and hear the less I like - he seems too glib, too inconsistent, too fickle, keen to massage messages rather than deal in substance.
Blessings for a Conservative party with a Conservative leadership that wants to serve the mass of people (including the disenfranchised and the poor) who will cut taxes for low-paid working classes, who want to reduce child poverty, raise education standards, free the front-line state professionals to deliver the services the people really need, who want a smaller, more efficient and more effective state that has clear priorities and delivers on its promises.
Father Ignatius Brown
www.father-ignatius-brown.com
The first cut should be the deepest!
Dr J Wilson and Mr Livesey - not sure I always agree with your politics but your economic views make more sense than most - keep up the good work.
Mr Warner - while you can't prove the counter-factual you can see whether what has happened has actually done us much good - and in the long term the answer is probably not since it has simply disguised the problem and offered no long term cure. As you and Mr King rightly point out: " For more than a decade now... Britain and other deficit nations have consumed more than they’ve earned, and borrowed the difference. To heal the resulting wounds, that process needs to go sharply into reverse. "
If the deficit spending had been in the form of personal tax cuts (coupled with a sharp reduction in the bloated para-state) then individuals (and consequently firms) could have rebuilt their balance sheets at a much faster rate - yes the pain might have felt worse but it would have been over quicker, the cut would have been cleaner and the healing would be more assured (rather than leaving the festering wound we have now).
Blessings for a wiser future and economic policy designed for growth and genuine wealth creation (no more Potemkin industries and services)
Father Ignatius Brown
www.father-ignatius-brown@gmail.com
Mr Warner - while you can't prove the counter-factual you can see whether what has happened has actually done us much good - and in the long term the answer is probably not since it has simply disguised the problem and offered no long term cure. As you and Mr King rightly point out: " For more than a decade now... Britain and other deficit nations have consumed more than they’ve earned, and borrowed the difference. To heal the resulting wounds, that process needs to go sharply into reverse. "
If the deficit spending had been in the form of personal tax cuts (coupled with a sharp reduction in the bloated para-state) then individuals (and consequently firms) could have rebuilt their balance sheets at a much faster rate - yes the pain might have felt worse but it would have been over quicker, the cut would have been cleaner and the healing would be more assured (rather than leaving the festering wound we have now).
Blessings for a wiser future and economic policy designed for growth and genuine wealth creation (no more Potemkin industries and services)
Father Ignatius Brown
www.father-ignatius-brown@gmail.com
The manufacturing myth
Maggie did not destroy the manufacturing base of this country - the trade unions did that 'progressively" during the 40's 50s, 60s and 70s with Labour's blessing and connivance - all Maggie did was stop pretending that useless companies like British Leyland actually made anything decent that anyone wanted or could do so at a price that was competitive - they couldn't - they depended on huge subsidies (from the wealth creating people in the economy) to make anything - it was a Potemkin industry.
Furthermore, manufacturing has contracted at a faster rate under Gordon Brown than under Maggie - FACT - unfortunately he has succeeded in closing down otherwise competitive and productive free-market firms by imposing ever higher costs in the form of higher taxes (including raising NI in the teeth of a recession that he left us ill prepared to deal with because he continued borrowing at the top of the cycle rather than saving and investing in long term, wealth creating infrastructure).
Father Ignatius Brown
Furthermore, manufacturing has contracted at a faster rate under Gordon Brown than under Maggie - FACT - unfortunately he has succeeded in closing down otherwise competitive and productive free-market firms by imposing ever higher costs in the form of higher taxes (including raising NI in the teeth of a recession that he left us ill prepared to deal with because he continued borrowing at the top of the cycle rather than saving and investing in long term, wealth creating infrastructure).
Father Ignatius Brown
Friday, 26 February 2010
Freedom of speech is non-negotiable.
Interesting how the servants of the left who sometimes pay lip service (nothing more) to freedom of speech are so keen to advocate banning an elected politician from carrying out his constitutional role just because they don't like what he says or the way that he says it. (Guess it stems from that natural tyrannical tendency that celebrates extended detention without trial or charge on 'secret' evidence that is inadmissible in court.)
Farage's insults don't appeal to me - but nor do the cheap insults of the petty-minded and petulant socialist polemicists and parrots who berate those opposed "ever closer union" as 'drunken rapists', 'lowlife' or other such nonsense.
When I talk to my European friends (some Dutch, some German, some Danish) - and relations (some Italian, some French, some Swiss) they are always full of praise and admiration for how independent we Brits are (they tend to also have the brains to recognise that political euro-scepticism is not the same as filial euro-phobia - and in fact can quite understand how once can be an ardent euro-phile without being a euro-federalist stooge).
I have to say I feel proud to be British, particularly when that means being associated with those independent minded people who are so proud of their great culture and their fundamental freedoms that they will fight to protect them on these blogs and at the ballot box.
Blessings for freedom to choose and freedom to speak
Father Ignatius Brown
Farage's insults don't appeal to me - but nor do the cheap insults of the petty-minded and petulant socialist polemicists and parrots who berate those opposed "ever closer union" as 'drunken rapists', 'lowlife' or other such nonsense.
When I talk to my European friends (some Dutch, some German, some Danish) - and relations (some Italian, some French, some Swiss) they are always full of praise and admiration for how independent we Brits are (they tend to also have the brains to recognise that political euro-scepticism is not the same as filial euro-phobia - and in fact can quite understand how once can be an ardent euro-phile without being a euro-federalist stooge).
I have to say I feel proud to be British, particularly when that means being associated with those independent minded people who are so proud of their great culture and their fundamental freedoms that they will fight to protect them on these blogs and at the ballot box.
Blessings for freedom to choose and freedom to speak
Father Ignatius Brown
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