MILIBAND AND BALLS RETURN TO LABOUR'S ROOTS.

Good old Labour.

In traditional fashion and ignoring the horrors of their last period in government, Balls, Miliband and the rest are in the processing of setting out a few policies for their next term if, indeed, the people are silly enough to vote for them. At their conference in Manchester, Balls has already said that they'd increase taxation, 'reverse the cuts in housing benefit' and increase the minimum wage to £8 per hour, while Miliband is, apparently, going to announce the introduction of a 'mansion tax' and that they'll throw yet more money at the NHS.

All of this is, of course, just electioneering. Miliband & Co. are well aware that these so-called policies will appeal to their traditional voters and they really don't care what anyone else thinks; this is simply all about pursuing their basic policy of taking from those with anything in order to provide hand-outs for those with less.

Increasing taxation, whether only on the so-called rich or not, would be counter-productive as it always is. Increasing the minimum wage will achieve little as this would be accompanied by consequential reductions in the payment of tax credits, housing and council tax benefits and so on. It would, in effect, shift costs from government to business and the end result would be higher prices for consumers.

The claimed 'cuts' in housing benefit which Balls has pledged to reverse, are nothing of the sort. The current government has not cut housing benefit, it has brought the benefits paid to tenants in local authority or housing association properties into line with the benefits paid to those in privately rented accommodation. What Balls is proposing is to return to the utterly unfair system which previously existed, something which simply cannot be justified.

Miliband's 'mansion tax' is just another policy popular with his envious supporters. The majority of people who would be affected by it live in the south east of England and he cares not about losing their votes - most don't vote for his lot anyway. Many of those who would be affected have paid for their homes out of previously heavily taxed income greatly and the value of their homes has increased greatly since they were bought; many would be pensioners on limited incomes who are 'property rich and cash poor'. At least some of these people would be forced to sell their homes as they would not be able to pay the tax. In the end, the only people living in the south east of England would be the super-rich, those for whom the tax is meaningless and who, quite possibly, would find ways of avoiding it altogether.

As for throwing more money at the NHS, there is no logic in this. Ever since its inception, the NHS has consumed increasing amounts of resources and, if unreformed, it will eventually consume the entire national budget. What is needed is real reform and an acceptance that it cannot continue in its current form; what the vast majority of people want is a service which deals quickly and efficiently with their everyday problems, not an all-encompassing service which provides whatever is demanded. A move to a service part-funded by the state and topped-up by insurance has to be the way forward and the sooner people realise this, the better.

Whether we'll be faced with a Miliband government next May has yet to be decided but one thing is certain; if they do make it to number 10, we can expect more tax, more profligacy and, ultimately, a poorer and less efficient nation with a more and more doctrinaire approach to everything. Labour simply have no answer to the issues of today, being stuck as they are in the class struggles of the past.