Redwood Economic Proposals
John Redwood’s policy review on economic competitiveness has now been officially released today. The report recommends that the Conservative party pledge to cut £14bn worth of red tape.
Naturally Labour, with ample help from their colleagues at the BBC have heavily criticised these proposals as ‘a lurch to the right’ – but then they would, wouldn’t they.
The proposals in Mr Redwood’s report suggest that corporation tax should be cut to 25p, that taxes including capital gains should be reformed, and that many EU laws should be unilaterally dis-applied in the UK. The BBC license fee, which Mr Redwood described as an unnecessary ‘poll tax’, also came in for criticism.
The policy review report was broadly welcomed this morning by George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor – but crucially not endorsed yet.
Much like the previous Iain Duncan Smith policy review on Social Justice, David Cameron does not have to endorse any of its findings or introduce them as party policy. Therefore, as seems to be the case, if the Conservative leadership are just going to ignore the vast majority of the proposals made by their own policy review groups, exactly what purpose do they serve?
