Cicero Lib Dem blog: Property tax breaks up the party
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Then the media got its teeth into another story - it looks like not a few people in the Liberal Democrat party are slightly miffed that Nick and Vince didn’t let them in on the mansion tax idea before it was announced. If this had been Labour or Tory conference it wouldn’t have been seen as quite such a big deal – policy is often handed down from on high there. But the Lib Dems like to think of themselves as different to the others – it is a federal organisation where the party as a whole is supposed to determine policy. Indeed this is precisely what Liberal Democrat conference is supposed to be about.
So Evan Harris, MP for Oxford East, was voicing the ire of many Lib Dems when he said from the conference platform "Nick is a really great guy and a good Liberal Democrat leader but people make great leaders when they recognise that the party makes policy." Menzies Campbell called the intervention "unhelpful" – which is pretty strong stuff from him.
And sure enough a number of the delegates were wittering about this, in the way that they do, on the row behind me at the Social Market Foundation’s and Lloyds Banking Group fringe on the future of homeownership. For the record, their opinions were divided – but one of the delegates felt that it was a big headache for not very much tax revenue. I was hoping that Sarah Teather MP might be challenged on her view on the mansion tax, but it wasn’t to be. She was talking more about affordable housing for rent than mansions. It was good for a change to hear a politician talk about the financial services industry as part of the solution rather than the problem. She thinks that institutional investors such as pension funds should have a big role in providing capital to build housing (particularly affordable housing) and that the Lib Dems would make what she called some ‘very dry techie changes’ to the structure REITs to encourage this.
For Labour conference you will be in the capable hands of my colleagues who I hope will provide some insight from what may prove to be a fascinating conference.
John Rowland is an analyst at Cicero Consulting.
