General Election 2019! The views of a centrist 67 year old...

As a staunch Remainer (sorry Brexiteer friends) I have followed the Election campaign with more interest than usual this time. Of course I am, at heart, a Liberal Democrat and will most probably vote for them on Thursday, particularly as our St. Albans' candidate has a real chance this time (we are led to believe.)

However, I find myself drawn to many of the "social" (not "socialist") policies put forward by the Labour Party. We DO need more NHS funding; we DO need to look after the weakest and poorest in our society; I DO believe that the "WASPI" women have had a raw deal and so on. I don't believe, though, that the best way of funding all this is a punitive tax regime on the so called top 5%. Yes, the richest in our society can afford to pay more income tax but the Labour Party's policies go much further than that. Take, for example, the plan to tax Capital Gains as income. There are many reasonably well off pensioners who have managed to save throughout their working lives in order to fund their retirement and who have, following advice received, diversified their investments into stocks, shares or property. In the case of property, they have often taken a mortgage to do this, hoping that the Capital Gain achieved on selling will boost retirement income and avoid them being a burden on the State. To tax those who have made gains by adding them to income could produce a top rate of 50% tax and greatly diminish their ability to look after themselves as they get older. "So what" I hear you say. "They are wealthy, they can afford it. The NHS and our social services will greatly benefit from taking almost half their gain." Well, it won't will it! Unless they absolutely have to, they won't sell during the term of a Labour Government so there will be no tax collected on their investments unless they pop their clogs during the next 5 years and Inheritance Tax eats it all up. Thus overall collection of Capital Gains Tax is likely to fall rather than rise.

Similarly, the 150 Billionaires we hear so much about, who might well pay some tax in the UK and who, almost certainly, are owners of vast businesses employing thousands of people, and who are very likely to relocate abroad in the event of a Labour victory. If they close their operations here, thousands employed by them will be unemployed, won't pay tax and National Insurance and might well become a burden on the State as unemployment rises.

On the same theme, charging VAT on Private School Fees will force many parents who feel they have little choice but to safeguard their children's education in areas where the Schools might not be as good, and use one parent's salary to fund it, will be unable to pay. They won't pay VAT as their children will no longer be at the school. Those children will still have to be educated and will have to be educated by the State in already overcrowded State Schools. This may well cost more than the VAT collected in the long run.

Don't get me wrong, I actually believe that charging VAT on private education is reasonable, but not at 20%. Would it not be better to have a lower rate of, affordable, VAT, say 5%? "Stretched" parents could just about afford that and would make sacrifices to do so. The bottom line of VAT collection could even be higher! Remember when VAT was cut to 15% (or was it 17.5?) for a while at the time of the Financial Crash? The amount collected was actually higher as consumers, sensing a bargain, spent more.

This is the "M40 Toll" argument! Cut the price of the Toll in half and three times the drivers would use the motorway. Net gain!

So, if only the Labour Party had produced the same policies with a more acceptable for all funding solution, they would stand a better chance of gaining Power and implementing socially necessary reforms. After all the Labour landslide of 1948 gave us the NHS, the Welfare State and so on.

So what of the Conservatives? As a "Remoaner" (for my Brextieer friends!) I really do believe we will be worse off as a Nation outside the EU. Call me old fashioned but I do think that we live in an interconnected World and I see myself more as a "human being" citizen of this World than "British." St. Albans is a multi-cultural city and I feel fortunate to live in it. I must admit, however, that if I lived in an area which had been virtually taken over by those of another culture, I might feel differently and perhaps we should be looking at multi-culturalism for our towns and cities, rather than concentrating immigration in particular places. We would all benefit if more places were like St. Albans regarding immigration perhaps, because it is hard to see how the NHS, transport system, hotel trade, restaurants, shops, cafes and agriculture etc. would survive without workers from across Europe and, indeed, other countries staffing them. We have almost record levels of unemployment so we need an overseas workforce who don't feel threatened and we need to learn to live together. So, Brexit is not for me I am afraid.

I do feel that the Conservatives manage the economy better, but often at the expense of the less well off and most needy in our society. Thus I am a natural Liberal Democrat and will vote as such, in the vain hope that a hung Parliament will somehow force a second referendum (I will abide by the result, I promise!) and will prevent a Socialist agenda sending us into terminal fiscal decline; but I do hope we might get some of the welfare policies we so desperately need from whoever is the main party

Why am I writing this? Actually to get my own thoughts in order. I could write this without pressing "send" of course, but it wouldn't be the same in this Social Media driven age would it! So here goes.....I await the flack and abuse from all sides! (Except the Liberal Democrats of course!)