A recent leaflet from the Conservative party (People Talk, page 2) says: “Freezing council tax. Conservatives will work with local councils to freeze council tax for two years, by reducing wasteful spending.”
However, the budget plans of the Conservative/Independent Cornwall Council tells us that this coming year, 2010/11, council tax will go up by 2.9 percent. For the next three years after that there are planned percentage rises of 2.5, 2.25, and 2.0 percent.
Freeze and spend, Mr Thomas?
If nothing else, we can thank Derek Thomas, Tory PPC for the St Ives Constituency, for reminding us of the time when St Ives last had a Tory MP.
In a letter to me, Mr Thomas says:
‘Since David Harris retired we have lacked the influence of an MP in the governing party or main opposition. Electing a Conservative MP would address this and be good news for West Cornwall and the Isle of Scilly.’
Ah, yes, the good news for West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly when Mr Harris was the MP for this low wage constituency, was that he and the Tory party robustly opposed the introduction of the minimum wage on the (false) grounds that it would result in the loss of hundreds of jobs in West Cornwall.
Now some people might think that perhaps at a time of high unemployment and recession, the last person you would want to defend jobs and pay was another Tory MP in the constituency.
In the remaining weeks to the general election, TBH will be taking the occasional walk down memory lane to the golden age of Tory representation for St Ives – and inviting Mr Thomas to join us.
The prospective Conservative MP for St Ives, Mr Derek Thomas, says he ‘will meet his own tax liabilities’ should he be elected at the general election. This promise to pay his taxes like the rest of us is made in the St Ives Conservative party’s ‘West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly News’ leaflet that recently cluttered up my letter box.
So, the long shadow of Lord Ashcroft reaches even as far as the St Ives Constituency.
The great mystery about Mr Derek Thomas, prospective Conservative MP for St Ives is,well, just what’s he doing in the Tory party? He looks nice, talks nice and is up to his neck in Good Causes and Good Deeds, now and over the years – if, that is, we are to believe a Tory election publication entitled ‘West Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly News.’ As we do.
Perhaps the answer is that Mr Thomas is so nice he just doesn’t get it.
Derek Thomas, the prospective Conservative MP for St Ives, has let slip his view that the Tories won’t win the general election.
‘To change the government in Westminster, the Conservative have to win here in St Ives’, Mr Thomas opines in an election leaflet arriving at my address this morning. (What’s happened to my ‘No Junk Mail’ edict?).
So, Gordon, on Mr Thomas’ analysis, you can settle down to another five years in Downing Street.
