Brown in the brown stuff!

There is bad news in the papers for Gordon Brown tomorrow. Polls carried by the Sunday Times and the News of the World show that the number of people who think he has been a good chancellor has declined sharply whilst those who think he has bad has risen sharply.

52% of voters think he has been a bad chancellor against 41% who think he has been good. A month ago the position was almost exactly the reverse , 51% thinking he had been good verses 41% thinking he was bad.

This is I suspect the result of Gordon Brown's Great Pensions grab and the budget which robbed the poor to give to the rich.

So it is now day 8 in the Pensions grab house and voters look like they want to evict Gordon! The only problem is they don't get a vote, the Labour party's electoral college does.

Hat tip to Noisy Summer on Politicalbetting.com for this story here, and Mike Smithson of politicalbetting.com also has this article.

Gordon Brown in the pensions grab house, day 5!

Well the story, in some circles, 10 years out of date continues to run. It is day 5 in the Pensions Grab house and we have this in the Times, about how there was no cabinet consultation, and crucially ministers responsible for pensions and social security were not consulted.

The question on every ones lips is: "Will Gordon be voted out".

Pensions Grab, Brown just does not get it!

Gordon Brown is back in the country after being mysteriously in Afghanistan when the news of the great Pensions smash and grab broke on Friday night, and according to this article carried by the BBC has defended the great pensions smash and grab at the launch of labours local election campaign.

Specifically he said:

"It was the right decision for investment. It was the right investment for our pensions and the right decision for our economy"

He added that he would "take the same decision again", adding: "I've attempted to take the right decisions, no matter how inconvenient and difficult they might be."

Mr Brown said the decisions he took had ensured the long-term strength of the economy which benefited everyone, including pensioners.

The only problem is that pensioners probably wont feel all that warm and glowy about it. In short this sort of comment will go down like a bucket of cold sick.

There is no great evidence that the change in the tax system has lead to greater investments in companies than would otherwise have been the case and whilst other factors have caused problems to pension funds other than the tax on them, rather than looking to help, Gordon Brown looked to put the boot in and raid a pot because he thought no one would notice.

The rationale for the tax benefits for pensions is simple. People providing for themselves in old age means the government does not have to. It is now no longer worthwhile for many people to have a pension at all because under the new tax and means tested benefit system any pension you get unless fairly large will be the same as someone who had not saved at all. Whether we like it or not people who will not benefit by saving will end up not saving at all,

Brown still under pressure over pensions

I wrote about Gordon Brown's Great Pension Smash and Grab on Saturday following stories in the Times and Telegraph about a freedom of information request which had brought to light advice on the pensions smash and grab.

Well the story continues. Today's Times speculates that this may damage Gordon Brown's leadership chances.

What is more interesting it the governments attempts at spinning the issue away. It is not working. Firstly Ed Balls has popped up all over the place saying they acted on best advice. Frankly that is just not good enough. Politicians get advice all the time, some of which they ignore and some they don't. The politicians are accountable for what they do, and trying to hide behind advice is like an errant school boy saying that he did something "because Johny told me to" to which "Well you wouldn't jump off a cliff if Johny told you would you?" is the normal reply.

Even more laughably is Ed Balls running around saying the CBI had been lobbying for the change. Lord Turner of the CBI has broken of his holiday to say that is simply not true! (See the BBC here)

By complete coincidence Gordon Brown having been questioned by the treasury select committee on Thursday on this very issue departed for Afghanistan on Friday, so just like Macavity, he was not there. Well he can't stay away for ever and the story so far looks set to run for a few days more. I wonder if he will be back in time to answer some questions? The Treasury select committee will want to ask him some questions when he gets back.

It looks like the wheels are coming of Labour's spin machine.

Gordon Brown's Great Pension Smash and Grab

Well, today's Telegraph carries this article on what Gordon Brown was told about his plan to remove pension funds tax credits on dividend payments.

The process worked like this:

A pension fund owns some shares in a company who pays a dividend. Normally this is taxable, but pension funds get the tax back.

Well Gordon removed that.

After a long battle under the Freedom of information act papers have now been released, you can find the main page here listing all the documents.

What is clear is that the poorest pensioners were going to be hit hardest and that far from being a tax on pension funds alone it would force companies to reduce pension benefits or pay an effective stealth tax.

Now we know Gordon was warned of the danger.

Clearly Gordon Brown is a chancellor who will fritter away tomorrows wealth for today's headlines.

Update 11:12

The Times apparently was the paper that pushed for the Freedom of Information act request, and has this article here. Below is a damning extract:

Documents that were released to The Times under the Freedom of Information Act show that officials told Mr Brown:

–– The lower paid would be worse off under the new rules

–– Pensioners due to retire would lose out immediately

–– Businesses would struggle to adjust to the change

–– It would cost pension providers £4 billion a year

–– Pension benefits would be cut

–– Shares could drop by between 6 per cent and 20 per cent

–– The value of existing pension funds could fall immediately by £50 billion

–– Local authority schemes would need topping up, leading to higher public spending

–– The Department of Trade and Industry would be “gravely concerned” about having to bail out pension schemes driven into insolvency

It's not look good for Gordon Brown this morning.

Worrying news

I regularly read politicalbetting.com, and from there got two links to interesting stories in the dead tree press.

One is on pensions and how they have changed in 10 years, in the Telegraph here, and one in the Daily Mail on the fail in crime detection rates here.

Pensions

10 years ago we had the strongest pensions in Europe, now they are in collapse. The report looks at the value of a pension paid in at £500 per year over 25 years maturing in 1996 and in 2006. The pension would have been worth £120,239 in 1996 and would be worth £55,992 now. As an annuity that would give an income of £13,466 in 1996 and £3,975 per year now.

Some people blame Gordon Brown for his £5 billion a year pension raid, others blame the fall in the stock market and some both. Who or what is to blame is irrelevant, the issue is that nothing has been done about it. A climate has been created in which people don't feel it makes sense to save for a pension.

Crime

The figures here are worrying. Far less people are being caught for things like robbery than used to be the case. The same is also true for rape and other violent offences. Murder detection rates are high though which is good.

The one thing most likely to deter crime is not what punishment people get if caught, it is the chances of getting caught which counts.

So why do we have this mess? Well, partly it is red tape, but it is also in my view a result of the vast number of new laws passed in the last 9 years.

This government seems happy to throw around resource (in terms of money) at things without getting the results.

A new Conservative government will need to use imagination to fix the structural problems being built in to our society.