Your Money – LibDem manifesto commitments delivered so far!

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Lib Dem Manifesto p.18 “We will increase the income tax threshold to £10,000”

In June’s emergency budget, we raised the tax threshold by £1,000, lifting 880,000 low earners out of tax completely. This will increase each year of the coalition government until it reaches £10,000, which will lift
an additional 3 million people out of tax altogether.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.14 “We will tackle tax avoidance and evasion, with new powers for HMRC”

In September, Danny Alexander announced a £900m crackdown on tax avoidance and evasion, expected to raise billions each year by 2014/15 from those who currently avoid paying their fair share of tax.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.14 “We will tax capital gains at the same rates as income, so that all the money you make is taxed in the same way.”

In June’s emergency budget we increased the rate of Capital Gains Tax to 28% for higher rate taxpayers while keeping it at 18% for basic rate taxpayers. This will raise an extra £1bn and end the disgraceful situation of bankers paying a lower rate of tax than their cleaners.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.18 “We will immediately restore the link between the basic state pension and earnings. We will uprate the state pension annually by whichever is the higher of growth in earnings or 2.5%”

The link between pensions and earnings, scrapped by Margaret Thatcher, was restored in the Coalition’s first budget. The annual increase in the state pension will be protected by a ‘triple lock’ -the rise will be in line with earnings, prices or a 2.5% increase, whichever is the greater.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.17 “We will pay down the deficit by saying no to the like-for-like replacement of the Trident nuclear weapons system.”

There will be no like-for-like replacement of Trident this Parliament.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.16 “We will scrap ID cards”

We have scrapped the ID card programme.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.18 “We will give people control over their pension by scrapping the rule that compels you to buy an annuity when you reach age 75”

The Government announced in the Emergency Budget that it will end the effective requirement to purchase an annuity by age 75 from April 2011.

Lib Dem Manifesto p.18 “Meeting the government’s obligations towards Equitable Life policyholders who have suffered loss. We will set up a swift, simple, transparent and fair payment scheme”

We have agreed a deal on Equitable Life which is fair to policy owners and the tax payer. This will finally bring an end to a terrible saga which Labour wouldn’t resolve.

0 thoughts on “Your Money – LibDem manifesto commitments delivered so far!”

  7. This is an interesting list. Unfortunately if you tell the truth 10 times and you lie twice, you are still a liar.

    Also I notice you have no comment on pages 1 to 13, 15 & 19+ of the LibDem manifesto.

  12. John – Perhaps the clue is in the title “LibDem manifesto commitments delivered so far!”

    Perhaps you need to watch this space if you can tear yourself away from your party’s blank page and forget the disasters of the last 13 years.

    I’d remind you of your party’s failures, but like your comrades you are still in denial, so I won’t waste my time.

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  17. Lynne

    I’m a bit confused by this post. Do you or do you not feel bound by your manifesto. This page is illustrating those areas where it can be said you have helped to implement your manifesto (I note that the VAT rise completely negates the increase in income tax threshold, but I accept that on a very narrow basis you can be said to have achieved what you intended). Only a few weeks ago, though, you said that you felt the coalition agreement superseded your manifesto commitments. I strongly disagree with this concept, but which one do you feel is true – that your manifesto is something you should be judged by, or that your manifesto is no longer relevant. If it’s the former then be honest here – there are some massive areas where you’re run away from your manifesto with some gusto (student fees, rail fares, election reform, a promise not to break promises (seriously), no up-front cuts, green stimulus plan, pupil premium as extra money (not the current reallocation planned) and many more things…)

    Tom

  19. A man rings up the Lib Dems for a copy of their manifesto.

    “We’ve sold out,” comes the reply.

    “Yes, I know that,” the man says. “I just want a manifesto.”

  20. It’s not in your manifesto, but I’ve been told by people in DELGA that you strongly support marriage equality. Is that true?

  21. Fair immigration is in your manifesto, but I don’t see you trying to find a way to remove that bigoted and hateful (and out of date) clause that states that any illegitimate children born prior to 1 July 2006 to a British father is a huge piece of nothing in the eyes of Britain.

    Will your manifesto address why it’s okay for immigration officers to pick and choose which child, born-out-of-wedlock, gets to have their birth registered while some do not? If it were an immigration officer picking and choosing which gay people to let in, I’m sure you’d be making the biggest fuss about it.

    If you’re born to a British mother, the world’s your oyster and Lynne will work to find ways to change policy to accommodate you. If you’re born to a British man, they throw you back in the water to drown while Lynne holds on to the life preserver and watches you go under.

  22. Lynne this is disgustingly partial and selective.

    You wouldn’t be an MP if it weren’t for the student vote {or my vote because i believed you about your fees pledge}.

    I couldn’t imagine I’d vote libdem and get a right wing coalition that privatises education and even moves onto privatising the NHS.

    If you had integrity and any hope of being re-elected again you should resign.

  23. Dave Exton:
    “I’d remind you of your party’s failure but like your comrades you are still in denial”

    That’s a typical ad hom. attack, and it’s interestinging that you don’t even know me and that you have made a false assumption.
    Let me clarify that I’m a Lib Dem member, since 1998, and have voted Lib Dem since I was old enough to vote. I feel let down by my MP, Lynne, who pledged to vote against a rise in tuition fees and she did the opposite. Not only did she vote for a tuition fee increase, she voted to treble fees, to slash funding to higher education and to saddle the next generation with debt. Possibly what has been the saddest part of it was listening to Lib Dem MPs arguing (falsely) that this was a progressive move when it is blatently the opposite.

  24. R Collins: Thank you for bringing this up; the double standard between mothers and fathers here is arbitrary and unfair. I too hope that Lynne will bring this to the attention of the government and push for the anomaly to be rectified.

  25. John: I’m also saddened that government ministers have voted against their own party’s policies. I appreciate the need for compromise, but would like to see much more transparency so we plebs can judge better whether the compromises being made are worth it.
    I think it’s high time to look closely at the doctrine of cabinet collective responsibility and how it is to apply to coalition governments.

  26. Tom, I think Lynne’s pointing out, quite reasonably, that the coalition agreement contains about 2/3rds of the Lib Dem manifesto. Even if Lynne believes that the coalition agreement supersedes the manifesto, the coalition agreement still delivers huge swathes of Liberal Democrat manifesto policies.

  27. “the coalition agreement still delivers huge swathes of Liberal Democrat manifesto policies.”

    Yes but most Lib Dem MPS owe their jobs to a pledge to vote against tuition fees. Lynne broke that pledge, and so neither Lynne nor the others who broke that pledge should, by rights, have been elected.