BRITAIN:The Cameron leadership has boosted Conservative morale for the UK's electoral battle ahead with eye-catching commitments on inheritance tax and stamp duty in a down-payment on a promised return to a tax-cutting agenda.
Shadow chancellor George Osborne electrified the party's conference here yesterday when he committed a future Conservative government to raise the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million and to abolish stamp duty for almost all first-time home buyers.
Mr Osborne also appeared to steal a march on prime minister Gordon Brown, announcing that he would pay for it by charging an annual levy of £25,000 on foreign businessmen living in the UK who are registered for "non-domiciled tax status".
Mr Osborne also sustained Mr Cameron's promised "Conservative fightback" with an attack on Mr Brown's conduct of the British economy. Deriding the notion of the former chancellor turned prime minister as "the nation's bank manager", Mr Osborne invoked the recent Northern Rock bank crisis and declared: "Gordon Brown - the nation's bank manager. Let's start queuing round the corner to close our account."
Mr Brown is expected to hold a council of war with key aides later this week before finally deciding whether to go to parliament next Monday to announce a dissolution and a November poll date. But as the Conservatives this morning turn their attention to foreign affairs and defence, the spotlight is likely to fall on Iraq amid reports that Mr Brown is preparing to announce the withdrawal of as many as half Britain's remaining troops by the end of the year.
Shadow foreign and fefence spokesmen William Hague and Liam Fox are this morning likely to join criticism of Mr Brown for failing in Bournemouth last week to devote any time to explaining the ongoing British military commitments in both Iraq and Afghanistan. And the Conservative platform is certain to echo complaints from within the military establishment that Britain's armed forces are seriously overstretched and under-resourced.
One complication for the Tories, however, is recent polling evidence that Conservative voters share the general enthusiasm to see British troops returning from Iraq.
During his Camp David summit with President Bush in the summer, Mr Brown promised he would report on any timetable arising from the situation in Basra to MPs upon their return to Westminster. Labour strategists may calculate that an announcement of speedy withdrawals would be a further boost to Mr Brown.
In Blackpool yesterday Mr Osborne maintained the Tory leadership's ostensible enthusiasm for an early battle as he proclaimed the Conservatives "the low tax party" of "aspiration" in "modern Britain".
Declaring "a new dividing line in British politics", Mr Osborne identified "the dividing line between a Labour prime minister who has taxed a generation out of home ownership and a Conservative government that will abolish stamp duty for first-time buyers. The dividing line between a Labour prime minister who takes away the homes of those who have saved all their lives and a Conservative government that takes people's homes and savings out of inheritance tax. The dividing line between a Labour prime minister who penalises couples and presides over social breakdown, and a Conservative government that supports marriage and encourages families to come together." Mr Osborne continued: "the dividing line between a Labour Party that punishes those who aspire for a better life and a Conservative government that says clearly, 'we are on your side'.
"We are the party of aspiration. And I for one am happy to put these clear choices before the British people at a general election." Speaking later on the conference fringe, Mr Osborne confirmed that the personal and business components of his overall tax proposals would be published before the election.
In his speech, Mr Osborne cast Mr Brown as a prime minister who "still thinks he can command, control, dictate, regulate and tax" and - quoting a former senior civil servant who said he [ Brown] had 'a very cynical view of mankind' - declared: "it is the antithesis of our age. If you want an election, prime minister, then get on and call it: because your cynicism and fear will lose every time to our hope and our optimism."
Mr Osborne insisted "we will always put stability first". However, it was the mark of Tories' seriousness about lower taxes, he assured, that he would not promise unfunded, undeliverable tax giveaways "to dress up" a press conference in an autumn election campaign. "For this party, lower taxes aren't just for Christmas. They are for life."