Some kind soul has just sent me this email from the LibDems. I'm not sure who it was originally intended for. It seems that we will be treated to their tax proposals on Friday - although they won't be holding a press conference for fear of any difficult questions. We know that Sir Ming isn't very good at counting...
"This is an advance warning that, on Friday morning, the party will be publishing the findings of our Tax Commission, which will be put to our autumn conference in Brighton next month.There will be no press conference, but we are working to maximise coverage in Friday's newspapers and broadcasts. On Thursday morning we will send you, under strict embargo:·
A copy of the press release for the following day·
A draft press release for local use by MPs and PPCs ·
A Q&A briefing on the proposals·
A link to the full paper from the Tax Commission, which will be posted on the extranet
On Friday morning the paper will be officially published and will be publicly available on the party website.The key messages for the launch will be broadly the same as those around Menzies' speech in June, in which he trailed some of the proposals. Specifically, that we aim to reform the tax system to make it
Fairer: progressive in relation to income and wealth
Simpler: for individuals and companies
Greener: taxing 'bads' and bigger incentives to sustainability
Local: greater fiscal freedom for democratic local government
More Efficient: promoting incentives to work and save
In particular, we aim to cut the burden of direct taxes on the lowpaid and Middle Britain and we would pay for it by raising taxes onthose who pollute the environment and on the very wealthy. I hope this is helpful.
George Crozier
Senior Political Adviser Liberal Democrat Political Communications Unit"
If you're seeking to maximise press coverage you might think you'd organise a press conference or keynote speech by the LibDem leader or Treasury Spokesman. Not rocket science, is it? Is the malign influence of Gavin Grant playing a role again? There may be trouble ahead...
12 comments:
You know it's going to be a load of rubbish if it's announced when everyone's away on holiday. Burying bad news?
Get ready for the whimper. I can see the headlines already "Cable Fails to Electrify."
Actually, it is probably more a rare example of the leader actually respecting the fact that this report doesn't constitute party policy yet as it has yet to be debated at conference.
Which party is more afraid of scrutiny - the party that holds democratic policy debates at its annual conference, or the party that has all policy dictated to it by its leader?
Are we absolutely certain that Ming is still alive and they're not delaying public appearances until the robot arrives from Japan?
Poor Ming displays yet more uncanny timing. Now we have the latest furore and hoohah over alleged "terrorist" plots and evil shenanigans, there is almost no chance that his tax proposals will get any media coverage on Friday anyway.
The Lib Dems trying to get news coverage while giving nothing to the cameras? Ming has an uphill struggle if he's trying to prove himself as leader by hiding from the spotlight.
Bring back Charlie!
" we aim to cut the burden of direct taxes on the lowpaid and Middle Britain and we would pay for it by raising taxes onthose who pollute the environment and on the very wealthy. I hope this is helpful."
Very helpful. they made a similar proposal recently in Scotland to take 2p off income tax & pay for it with unnamed green taxes.
The weakness is, of course, that a tax cut fully funded by raised taxes isn't a tax cut. Indeed, since income tax has relatively low admin costs & "green" taxes likely to have high ones, there will have to be a net overall increase in taxes to fund the tax cut.
Pretty stupid not to publicise these. It almost as if they don't want the electorate to know that they are making widely popular and sensible proposals on tax whilst Gordon bloats the public sector and Cameron does nothing.
Piss poor management.
Iain, thanks for publicising our tax plans.
Any time, Tabman, any time. I suspect it won't be the last mention they'll get here.
:Big Smiley:
Non-story.
The Lib Dems will be publicising these policies, and the rest as much as possible between now and the next election.
When to hold the press conferences is a matter of strategy.
If you fear scrutiny, holding the press conference before the hacks have had a chance to actually read the proposals might be a good idea.
Er, if the Lib Dems are so afraid of the tax proposals being scrutinised why did Ming Campbell trail them in two big speeches in June and July, and why are they being published in full on the party website a full six weeks before the party conference?
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