Peter Hill
THERESA MAY is said to be considering an early election despite saying that there would be no such thing. After the Budget fiasco I suppose another U-turn would not be a shock. All the same the Prime Minister needs to think carefully and to be fair that is what she usually does.
Many Tory MPs want an election as soon as possible because they are worried that Brexit negotiations might either collapse instantly – the nuclear scenario – or drag on for years – the slow poison scenario. They also reason that Labour are at their lowest point in voter confidence.
Former PM Harold Wilson said a week is a long time in politics. Now one day is a long time or even one hour, as Chancellor Philip Hammond can confirm. Think what will happen if he deals a further tax blow to pension savers to replace his failed national insurance rise.
Just this week it is revealed that the better off are paying more tax than under any Labour government. The top 10 per cent earning more than £51,400 pay 59 per cent of total income tax, compared with 35 per cent in 1976. These are the so-called strivers, who no longer regard the Tories as a low-tax party. Whacking their pensions even harder could be the last straw. q INSTEAD of automatically reaching for the more-tax solution, the Government should be looking for savings, especially close to home. More people than ever are employed by central government, up by 27,000 on the previous quarter to a staggering 2,975,000. What are they all doing?
Although the NHS has a chronic shortage of doctors and nurses it also employs more people than ever – more than 1,600,000 according to the Office for National Statistics. Most of the additional staff are, you guessed it, managers and back office.
Untold numbers are also engaged in the quango industry, which has not shrunk despite promises of a bonfire of the quangos. There are 8,000 fewer public service workers but that is exactly where we don’t need cuts. Civil service and managerial empires grow and grow and no one is in charge of the overhead. q SCOTTISH firebrand Nicola Sturgeon has graciously conceded that another referendum on Scottish independence can be postponed. The real reason? She knows she would lose again. The Scots are too canny to cut themselves off from the generous hand of England. q DEVON and Cornwall police are looking for a manager to run their new drone unit. Many more forces are also planning to use spies-in-the-sky “to free up resources”. I worry that drones will merely be expensive toys for the boys in blue, to go along with their BMWs and tablets: fun to play with but not a hell of a lot of use in the fight against crime. They would be better off with a few more bicycles. q A FARMER’S two sons face a £200,000 legal bill after their attempt to stop their stepmother getting an extra £25,000 from their father’s will was thrown out by a court. Richard and Jonathan Powell claimed an earlier will leaving their 75-yearold stepmother £100,000 should stand but the judge said they were “unreasonable”.
In another case an ex-wife has spent £230,000 fighting over a £20million stash, which she claims her former husband is hiding. The couple are in their early 30s and have lived together only five months so why should she think she is entitled to anything?
A judge warned the couple that the more they spent on legal proceedings the less there would be left. When arguments end up in court only lawyers benefit, whoever “wins”. q ALLEGED rape victims are to be spared the ordeal of cross-examination in court. Instead they will be allowed to give evidence on video. Is that fair? Under the present rules judges have the power to stop defence counsel from intimidating witnesses. It can be a terrible ordeal to be in the witness box but justice must be seen to be done.
If this concession goes ahead it will be the right time to change the law so that anyone accused of rape should not be named unless convicted. There have been too many cases of men whose lives have been ruined by false accusations. q ODIOUS EU Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker says Theresa May will have to walk away with nothing if she does not like his £60billion bill.
Britain, he says, faces “the choice to eat what’s on the table or not come to the table at all”.
He added that none of the remaining 27 countries would ever consider leaving the EU again when they see how harshly Britain will be treated.
We should not bother trying to negotiate with people who are determined to humiliate us. Instead we should present our terms, ending with that good old British expression “Like it or lump it”. Let them do the squirming. q TOP GEAR used to be the only programme my teenage son and I watched together and that bit of father-son bonding sadly ended when the BBC foolishly sacked Clarkson.
The new Top Gear is better than the Chris Evans disaster. Matt LeBlanc is trying hard, Rory Reid is chummy, Chris Harris is competent although he’s arrogant without being amusing. It’s so-so.
I now have to pay for Amazon Prime so we can watch The Grand Tour, which is cool. Well, I don’t have to but a father’s togethertime with a son is worth any price.