Tory MP Quentin Davies has left the Tories, accusing Cameron of having no beliefs.?

Question

Will Cameron draw up a few battle plans now, or wait till a few more have scarpered?

Sorry for the thumbs down Lorne, but iv read that lot b4, and it fills the screen up rather a lot. Compare those taxes to the taxes you paid in your wages during our last govt, i think you'll find you are better off now. And your kids schools are better, and hospitals they hopefully WONT visit are better funded. Anyway back to the awol Mp. Will he fair better under the Labour banner. And to add a question:

Can a Tory MP actually fit in with a Labour govt?

V O R: As iv done pretty much nothing but fish the last 2 weeks i thought id have a change. And its a nickname a couple of me mates have used since school, as fishing is my no1 hobby. My avatar pic has an Aquarium background, although you cant see most it.

Lorne's list is still well used i see. Pity most of it doesnt apply to the vast majority of us.

Answer 1

Lorne - how many more times are you going to post this inaccurate Tory press release?

The source you quote is not your source is it? You lifted this verbatim from the Tory website. How do I know? Because the facts are wrong, and have been independently provided to be so.

The 99 tax rises was used to support a Tory photo opportunity on budget day - it fitted in with "99 Red Balloons".

Some of the items on your list are corporation taxes and other measures which only affect average citizens very indirectly, some were very small. A rise in the duty on 'minor oils' was the most obscure example, and some were green taxes, not unlike the green taxes “Dave” Cameron as been advocating this past year.

The Institute of Fiscal Studies calculated back in 2005 that the number of tax rises up to 2005 was 157. So using the Tories own measure that number would now be closer to 200. However, on the same basis, the IFS counted 215 tax cuts to 2005, and that number will have gone up too.

So, 157 - 215 = 58 tax cuts. Gordon was the tax cutting Chancellor. Well done Lorne for helping to point this out!!

This is what happens when you rely on Tory Press Releases for your “Facts” – you end up demonstrating that you are talking twaddle.

Mick (Why the name change, by the way?) - Although the Davies defection will be a one day wonder, he condemnation of Cameron was withering. No doubt Lorne, Wooley, A True Gentleman and Nelson will already be wondering who their next leader will be!! Davies will now disappear from the headlines, and will either stand down at the next election, or lose his seat (a pretty safe Tory one).

Answer 2

The defection of Quentin Davies is a major coup for Brown - not because of who he is but because of the constituency he represents - Grantham.

That may mean nothing to you but if I was to tell you it is the home town of a certain Margaret Thatcher, can you see the significance. This is one of the most humiliating things that could possibly happen to Posh Boy Cameron - it may well finish him as a credible leader.

No-one can dispute the Tories are lost. As much as I dislike him, TB was brilliant when he nicked all the Tories best ideas and repackaged it as "New Labour" Absolute masterstroke.

The only way the Tories can stage a comeback is to get some real policies that appeal to middle england. Iraq, immigration, healthcare - they need a radical rethink and policies that accurately reflect what people really want.

Answer 3

Hi Mick, I liked your question and then your follow up statement.

I think whilst todays call seems to be for a follow up election I am really not sure what is going to change, looking at the realistic choices of who would run the country I'm not sure everyone is thinking things through.

After the long wind down and good bye surely what the country really needs is some running, people really need to make sensible criticism and realistic ideas that may work, if not soon you end up like a skoda where everyone remembers the past and still sniggers.

People could use places like this to actually come up with great ideas, but instead it is party versus party and still thoughts on the past, people should come up with real ideas of how to move on.... all the best

Answer 4

Whatever Cameron does is not the point, its the morality of Quentin Davis, who clearly comes across as an upper class twit who is more concerned about himself than his constituents.

He was elected by a load of people who rightly or wrongly didnt want to vote for any other party but the Tories.

Therefore he has the right to leave the Tory party, and the right to stand as a member of parliament for Labour, BUT he does not have the right to transfer those Tory voters democratic rights to the Labour party. He should have resigned his seat and stood in a by election.

He is a self serving political and social dinosaur who is a career politician now and will be dumped on his public school **** at the next election.

I think Labour will end up seeing him as a millstone around their necks.

Cameron may even have sent him as a joke.

Answer 5

Moving a major party to the centre has snookered any opposition due to the first-past the post system. If you do likewise, voters will be apathetic because there's no real choice. If you go more radical/extreme, voters will not like certain aspects of the policy and will vote for the moderate centre party.

I don't know what Cameron can do, stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Answer 6

Davies is obviously just jumping aboard a political bandwagon, as he sees that Gordon Brown may have more influence over voters than Cameron. How a man who has been a torie for so long will fit in, i don't know. However, this could just be a clever trick of the conservatives to get some of their views into cabinet discussions.

Answer 7

The idea that a MP can change party's strikes me as wanting your cake and eating it. If he was relay upset why not resign and become independent then go for a by-election. We have a new PM unelected even by his own party, this is just another nail in the coffin for trust in politicians.

Answer 8

Marshmallow Brain wouldn't know what a battle plan is.

Answer 9

never had it so good. building schools on busy main road or next to railways and selling off the good land to their buddies browny boy man of the people ha

Answer 10

Gordon Brown’s 99 Tax Rises

1997
1. Mortgage interest relief cut
2. Pensions tax (payable tax credits abolished)
3. Health insurance taxed (income tax relief abolished)
4. Health insurance taxed again (IPT)
5. Fuel tax escalator up
6. Vehicle Excise Duty up
7. Tobacco duty escalator up
8. Stamp duty up for properties over £250,000
9. Limit carry back of trading losses to one year
10. Dividends on trading assets
11. Taxation of finance leasing
12. New Windfall Tax on utilities
13. Futures and options
14. VAT: cash accounting scheme

1998
15. Married couple’s allowance cut
16. Tax on travel insurance up
17. Tax on casinos and gaming machines up
18. Fuel tax escalator brought forward
19. Tax on company cars up
20. Tax relief for foreign earnings abolished
21. Tax concession for certain professions abolished
22. Capital Gains Tax imposed on certain non-residents
23. Reinvestment relief restricted
24. Corporation Tax payments brought forward and ACT abolished
25. Higher stamp duty rates up
26. Some hydrocarbon duties up
27. Additional diesel duties
28. Landfill Tax up
29. Exceptional increase in tobacco and alcohol duties
30. Amendments to offshore trusts
31. VAT: fuel scale charges

1999
32. NIC earnings limit raised
33. NICs for self-employed up
34. Married Couple’s Allowance abolished
35. Mortgage tax relief abolished
36. IR35: Taxation of personal services companies
37. Company car business mileage allowances restricted
38. Tobacco duty escalator brought forward
39. Insurance Premium Tax up
40. Vocational Training Relief abolished
41. Employer NICs extended to all benefits in kind
42. VAT on some banking services up
43. Premiums paid to tenants by landlords taxed
44. Duty on minor oils up
45. Vehicle Excise Duties for lorries up
46. Landfill tax escalator introduced
47. Higher rates of stamp duty up again
48. Capital gains on sale of companies
49. Controlled Foreign Companies: taxation of dividends

2000
50. Tobacco duties up
51. Higher rates of stamp duty up again
52. Extra taxation of life assurance companies
53. Rules on Controlled Foreign Companies extended
54. Aggregates levy increased
55. Changes to double taxation relief
56. Rent factoring
57. Capital gains tax: use of trusts and offshore companies
58. VAT: capital asset disposals

2001
59. Controlled foreign companies regime

2002
60. Personal allowances frozen
61. National Insurance threshold frozen
62. NICs for employers up
63. NICs for employees up
64. NICs for self-employed up
65. North Sea taxation up
66. Tax on some alcoholic drinks up
67. New stamp duty regime
68. New rules on loan relationships
69. Taxation of foreign company UK branches

2003
70. VAT on electronically supplied services
71. IR35 applied to domestic workers
72. Betting duty change
73. Tax on red diesel and fuel oil up
74. Controlled Foreign Companies measures on Ireland
75. Vehicle excise duty up
76. VAT: on continuous supplies
77. VAT: on privately operated tolls
78. Treatment of options for the purposes of tax on chargeable gains
79. Landfill tax increased

2004
80. Minimum 19% tax rate on distributed profits
81. Transfer pricing and thin capitalisation
82. Increase in rate of tax on trusts
83. Increase in tax on red diesel fuel
84. Increase in tax on other road fuels (including LPG)
85. VAT: transfers of going concern
86. Insurance premium tax: Changes to GAP insurance
87. Taxation of life companies
88. Foreign earnings deduction for seafarers
89. Construction industry scheme

2005
90. Stamp duty land tax: ending commercial disadvantaged areas relief
91. Increase in North Sea corporation tax
92. Further increase in tax on red diesel
93. Increase in taxation of leasing
94. Company car tax up

2006
95. Further changes to oil valuation for tax purposes
96. Stamp duty land tax: ending relief for initial transfers into unit trusts
97. Removal of income tax exemption for loaned computers
98. North Sea Oil tax increased
99. Air Passenger Duty doubled



(Source: Budgets and Pre-Budget Reports)