You can find a video record of this week's
matinee performance here.
Of particular interest is the Liberal Democrat motion on the promised increase in tax thresholds. In the original form, the wording actually supported a tax increase by reducing these thresholds - something I wrote about here. Cllr Eustace's speech is particularly interesting, as it rambles over a range of issues and only occasionally makes passing contact with tax. While I agree with increasing the take home pay of some of the lowest paid in the economy, I hold that there are better and more efficient ways of doing it, as increasing the tax threshold actually benefits the wealthier more than it does the lower paid. It also has no effect on many pensioners, those working part-time or the very poorest, as they are already beneath the tax threshold and don't pay a penny. I wrote in
greater depth on it on the other place.
During that, Cllr Reg Corns (Con) makes sound points - about job insecurity and that payday loan firms like Wonga.com are "the biggest enemy of the ordinary working man." These firms do charge terrifyingly high rates of interest - well over 1000% APR is common. Curiously,
one of the investors in Wonga.com is not only a major donor to the Conservative Party (£500,000 in the past five years), but also
came up with a plan to allow employers to sack workers without any fear of unfair dismissal action, despite
a complete lack of evidence that this would make any difference to firms.
