Friday 18 March 2005

MR BLAIR’S DODGY FIGURES

Mr Blair – the man who gave us the dodgy dossier, and whose Chancellor does not believe a word he says – is now not telling the truth about Conservative spending plans. After eight years in power, and just weeks before a general election, he thinks that he can get away with this again. He can’t.
Conservative plans are fully costed and fully funded. We will spend the same as Labour on schools, hospitals, transport and aid, and slightly more than Labour on pensions, defence and police. We want give taxpayers value for money and focus on what matters to them.
The only thing we will cut is waste. We are making modest savings of 2p in the pound, which means we can pay back Government debt and lower taxes.
The simple fact is that Mr Blair is trying to distract attention from the fact that he’s spending and borrowing so much that he would have to put up taxes if he won again.
The choice at the election is very clear. Value for money and lower taxes with the Conservatives, or more waste and higher taxes under Mr Blair.

Our Value for Money Action Plan
• We will invest in people’s priorities, spending the same as Labour on the NHS, schools, transport and international development.
• We will spend more than Labour on police, pensions and defence – and give more help to pensioners with better pensions as well as up to £500 off their council tax bill of households where people are over 65.
• We’re able to spend more on what matters by cutting back Mr Blair’s wasteful bureaucracy and
unnecessary government activity, including:
- 168 public bodies
- 235,000 bureaucratic posts
- the regional assemblies
- the new supreme court
- the small business service and
- the New Deal.

In the first two years, we’ll be saving £12 billion a year - just 2p in every pound the government
spends. In a civil service that is now the size of Sheffield, is Mr Blair really saying it isn’t possible
to make modest savings like this?
• Nothing in the Budget makes any difference to our tax and spending plans.
• We will implement all of the changes announced in this Budget including the payment to
pensioners, free bus travel and increasing stamp duty and inheritance tax thresholds.
• By spending £12 billion less, we will pay off the £8 billion of Mr Blair’s borrowing so we can avoid his next round of stealth taxes.
• The remaining £4 billion will be used to cut taxes in our very first Budget, including halving council tax for millions of pensioners, worth up to £500.
Will you cut spending by £35 billion?
No – that’s more propaganda from Mr Blair, the man who gave us the dodgy dossier. We will spend more on schools, hospitals, pensions and police, as we want give taxpayers value for money and focus on what matters to them. The only thing we will cut is waste. We are making modest savings of 2p in the pound, which we means we can pay back Government debt and have lower taxes.
But won’t you be cutting spending £35 billion by 2011-12?
No – that’s more propaganda from Mr Blair, the man who gave us the dodgy dossier. We will increase spending by 4 per cent a year each year more during the next parliament. If Labour are saying that they will spend even more than us, they need to come clean and say where the money will come from.

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