A secret Government report has condemned Home Information Packs (HIPs) as “a waste of time”.

The damning report, made public because of a Parliamentary
Question, savages Labour's flagship housing
policy.

Entitled Home Information Packs: A presentation of research findings,
the report was compiled by the market research organisation GFK NOP, which
asked almost 4,000 house buyers, sellers and estate agents about their
attitudes towards HIPs.

The report concluded that house buyers and sellers “don't see the purpose”
of the packs and show a “a lack of engagement, experience and interest”.
It added that “neither buyers or sellers are proactively enquiring
about HIPs”.

Grant Shapps, the Conservative Shadow Minister for Housing, said Labour had been
“caught red-handed” trying to hide this damning indictment of Home
Information Packs.

And he promised a Conservative Government would abolish this unnecessary piece of red tape:

“Home Information Packs have served to undermine the housing market,
increased the cost of buying and selling a home and discouraged
speculative sellers.”

Libertarian Rating
If the content in the article above ever gets to the Conservative manifesto it will have been rated PPP using the Libertarian Party policy test rating as follows:

Libertarian Test – Pass
Stalin Test – Pass
Rule of law – Pass

This
indicates that it is good for the citizens of the UK and would therefore be
considered a good policy, one that could be supported by a
Libertarian Government.

(I don't expect to see many PPP ratings, but when I do, they are most welcome).

Conservative Home is putting forward what it calls an exclusive, that the Tories are flip flopping again, changing their minds and are going to tinker with the taxation system but not change anything.

They tell us:

Two weeks ago ConservativeHome exclusively revealed that the Conservatives were unlikely to renew the pledge to match Labour on spending.  A
senior frontbencher has now told us that, as part of an ongoing review
of economic policy, higher green taxation is very unlikely to feature
in the next Conservative manifesto.

Unlikely to feature. What kind of commitment is that?

They go on:

The Tory plan up had been to reduce taxation of families from the
proceeds of higher green taxation.  Lower taxation of families is now
expected to be financed by stricter control of spending.  The overall
priority, however, will be a reduction in borrowing.

That in anyones books was not reducing taxation at all. That was just replacing one tax with another. Whilst the idea from the Tories of a stricter control on spending is welcomed, it undoubtedly will never go far enough.

Then there is this:

Speeches by David Cameron and George Osborne at the Birmingham Party
Conference will warn of very difficult economic times ahead.  The Tory
leadership believes that the deterioration in the economic situation
has vindicated their opposition to calls for a lower overall burden of
taxation but they also fear that any moves to increase green taxation
(even if offset by lower taxes elsewhere) will worsen an already
precarious landscape for British business.  There is a particular fear
that green taxes will discourage urgently needed investment in new
energy generating capacity.

This has to be the biggest load of horse s**t ever. Vindicated their opposition to calls for a lower overall burden of taxation !! What they are telling you here is that the poor schmucks at the lowest end of the taxation system will continue to pay through the nose so that a Tory government can continue to bail our failing businesses. Unbelievable.

As for a fear that green taxes will discourage urgently needed investment is disengenious, what they really fear is that the voters have seen through the Green scam and are not willing to put up with it any more, and they may lose votes over it.

They prove that point themselves by going on to say:

The “Green Shift” (higher taxation of pollution and lower taxation of
families) will nonetheless be restated as a medium term goal.  Canada's
Conservatives have used opposition plans to raise green taxes to
devastating electoral effect.

They got wiped out in other words. So the Tory shift in policy has nothing to do with common sense, nothing to do with making the lot of the poor taxpayers any better, its all about winning votes and gaining power, nothing more.

And, they are still missing the point that the man in the street is trying to get across as highlighted in this statement:

Tory economic traditionalists will be disappointed that George Osborne
will continue to resist calls for a pro-growth package of tax reliefs. 
They have taken heart, however, from this week's warnings from the
party leadership against panic re-regulation of the financial sector
and against protectionist sentiment.

Tax relief packages. Lunacy at your expense.
In order to continue to control the individual, they will sit on the tax relief packages, taking taxes from the lowest paid in the workforce, administering it at a hugely disproportionate cost only to hand it back again as tax relief and benefits. What they should be doing, and what the man in the street is looking for, is getting rid of the lowest levels of taxation completely to break the cycle of dependency, but they won't.

Must control the masses. More of the same from Blue Labour.

Now that Cameron has hoovered up the worst of Tony Blair's old advisors, we can expect more and more of this tom foolery from the Tories.

But, There IS another way!

The
Libertarian
Party
has a range of fiscal policies that would put an end to this cynical
game of boom and bust where the public are the only losers, policies to
cut back on wasteful Government spending to reduce
the tax burden and has undertakings to put an end to the cycle of Spin
and
the Politics of Fear.


The Only home of Libertarian policy in the UK

Your Life, Your Country, Your Choice.

Conservative Home is putting forward what it calls an exclusive, that the Tories are flip flopping again, changing their minds and are going to tinker with the taxation system but not change anything.

They tell us:

Two weeks ago ConservativeHome exclusively revealed that the Conservatives were unlikely to renew the pledge to match Labour on spending.  A
senior frontbencher has now told us that, as part of an ongoing review
of economic policy, higher green taxation is very unlikely to feature
in the next Conservative manifesto.

Unlikely to feature. What kind of commitment is that?

They go on:

The Tory plan up had been to reduce taxation of families from the
proceeds of higher green taxation.  Lower taxation of families is now
expected to be financed by stricter control of spending.  The overall
priority, however, will be a reduction in borrowing.

That in anyones books was not reducing taxation at all. That was just replacing one tax with another. Whilst the idea from the Tories of a stricter control on spending is welcomed, it undoubtedly will never go far enough.

Then there is this:

Speeches by David Cameron and George Osborne at the Birmingham Party
Conference will warn of very difficult economic times ahead.  The Tory
leadership believes that the deterioration in the economic situation
has vindicated their opposition to calls for a lower overall burden of
taxation but they also fear that any moves to increase green taxation
(even if offset by lower taxes elsewhere) will worsen an already
precarious landscape for British business.  There is a particular fear
that green taxes will discourage urgently needed investment in new
energy generating capacity.

This has to be the biggest load of horse s**t ever. Vindicated their opposition to calls for a lower overall burden of taxation !! What they are telling you here is that the poor schmucks at the lowest end of the taxation system will continue to pay through the nose so that a Tory government can continue to bail our failing businesses. Unbelievable.

As for a fear that green taxes will discourage urgently needed investment is disengenious, what they really fear is that the voters have seen through the Green scam and are not willing to put up with it any more, and they may lose votes over it.

They prove that point themselves by going on to say:

The “Green Shift” (higher taxation of pollution and lower taxation of
families) will nonetheless be restated as a medium term goal.  Canada's
Conservatives have used opposition plans to raise green taxes to
devastating electoral effect.

They got wiped out in other words. So the Tory shift in policy has nothing to do with common sense, nothing to do with making the lot of the poor taxpayers any better, its all about winning votes and gaining power, nothing more.

And, they are still missing the point that the man in the street is trying to get across as highlighted in this statement:

Tory economic traditionalists will be disappointed that George Osborne
will continue to resist calls for a pro-growth package of tax reliefs. 
They have taken heart, however, from this week's warnings from the
party leadership against panic re-regulation of the financial sector
and against protectionist sentiment.

Tax relief packages. Lunacy at your expense.
In order to continue to control the individual, they will sit on the tax relief packages, taking taxes from the lowest paid in the workforce, administering it at a hugely disproportionate cost only to hand it back again as tax relief and benefits. What they should be doing, and what the man in the street is looking for, is getting rid of the lowest levels of taxation completely to break the cycle of dependency, but they won't.

Must control the masses. More of the same from Blue Labour.

Now that Cameron has hoovered up the worst of Tony Blair's old advisors, we can expect more and more of this tom foolery from the Tories.

But, There IS another way!

The
Libertarian
Party
has a range of fiscal policies that would put an end to this cynical
game of boom and bust where the public are the only losers, policies to
cut back on wasteful Government spending to reduce
the tax burden and has undertakings to put an end to the cycle of Spin
and
the Politics of Fear.


The Only home of Libertarian policy in the UK

Your Life, Your Country, Your Choice.

If I were a US taxpayer I'd be laughing right now. Hysterically. What
other options would I have, short of picking up my rifle and walking to
Washington?

The text of the proposed Paulson 'bail out' has been released, and it's a real doozy. Your eyes are naturally drawn to the numbers:

Sec. 6. Maximum Amount of Authorized Purchases.

The
Secretary’s authority to purchase mortgage-related assets under this
Act shall be limited to $700,000,000,000 outstanding at any one time

Ha ha ha. And:

Sec. 10. Increase in Statutory Limit on the Public Debt.

Subsection
(b) of section 3101 of title 31, United States Code, is amended by
striking out the dollar limitation contained in such subsection and
inserting in lieu thereof $11,315,000,000,000.

Those are the bits that'll probably get the press. But the real kicker is Section 8:

Sec. 8. Review.

Decisions
by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are
non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be
reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

An
extra-judicial financial dictatorship is being declared in the United
States. The US Secretary of the Treasury is about to usurp the
President as the most powerful person in the world.

We do live in 'interesting' times indeed.

Hattip LPUK