And there it was. I got the tip it would be on from this post on Ellee Seymour's blog! (I would have thought I would have heard it on Iain Dale's blog first).
Made quite interesting watching. Tim Montgomery of 18 Doughty Street, also of Conservative Home was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman, along with some Labour MP who's name *cough* I can't quite remember.
Tim made the point that in a political world where all the leaders of the political parties seem close on controversial issues, a lot of voters feel cut out. He cited tax and gay adoption as two issues. I agree. I think that there seems to be too much political unity (though I think the Conservative position on tax is fine as far as it goes).
However the beauty of the blogosphere is the debate rages here!
18 Doughty street are running a weekly series covering issues that it does not feel the establishment are covering adequately, if at all. This weeks one is tax. Next weeks will be party funding. You can get involved by looking at the issue, putting in your tuppence worth, and then voting on the proposals. See here.
Personally I think it is a great idea. I certainly think that the state funding of political parties is a very very bad idea.
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4 comments:
I receive emails from Newsnight each day telling me the highlights of their evenings programmes, which is how I picked up on this late afternoon. I guess if Iain is busy, he doesn't have time.
I'm excited about the future of Doughty Street too and am following how the social media is being used by politicians worldwide to engage with its voters. It's great to see the State of Utah using a wiki to get feedback about proposed new legislation, that is so progressive.
Ellee, Thanks for the info on that.
Yes I agree about being excited. All good news as it is bringing politics back to the people.
There is a conservative tax policy?
err...more green taxes and 'sharing the proceeds of growth'.
begorrah, this is not a policy it the worst kind of soundbite politics.
God forbid they actually try to implement it.
CityUnslicker, we don't have a tax policy now, we have an aspiration that the tax burden will fall.
If we did have specific proposals you could bet your bottom dollar the government would do their best to either steal them, make them irrelevent or rubbish them. For now it is still best to keep our powder dry and concentrate on broad brush issues. Sound bites if you like.
Policy specifics will come later.
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