Friday, September 07, 2007

Dale's Dire Maths: "Calculating" Boy Costs London Households £4,000


Dave-id Cameron and his puppy are going Japanese at the thought of making the future Maidstone and Weald MP Iain Dale his Chancellor

Oh dear, oh dear, I Dale. There is a dire need for six-week National Community Service training for Tory Boy Bloggers if this piece of careless spin is anything to go by.

This report (PDF download) is from the The Bow Group. "The Bow Group is the oldest - and one of the most influential - centre-right Think-Tanks in Britain. The Group exists to develop policy, publish research and stimulate debate within the Conservative Party. It has no corporate view, but represents all strands of Conservative opinion."

Iain claims that this, ahem, impartial report reveals quotes at length from the report including that:

The Mayor has also squandered the huge increase in government grants over the same time. Grants that cost the average London household over £2,000 in tax.

The Executive Summary of the report in fact says:

... the GLA now receiving tax payer grants worth £2,000 per household
Exec Summary, second deck of type on Tax, on super soaraway page 3

So according to the report Exec Summary London households RECEIVE THE BENEFIT OF an average of £2,000 in government grant per annum. They do not PAY it. How Why does Iain get not spot this switch from RECEIVE to COST? A little bit adventurous even by Tory twisting standards?

So, Ken and his crew actually EARNED LONDONERS (say 3 million households x £2,000 =) £6 Bn in government grants? According to this Tory think tank report. Hurrah! Well done Team Ken.

There was no secret hypothecation of taxes in London last time I looked. These are taxes from national and international companies and direct and indirect personal tax nationwide. So this "statistic" would have been 100% pure Tory toss anyway. Given that it in fact INCOME [insert]the Bow Group report featured by[/insert] Iain Dale's Diary has actually cost every household in London £4,000. Shame on him them. Maidstone and Weald must watch him closely should he be successful in his ambition to become their MP.

Compared to Boris Johnson we're told his calculating is "quite good".

UPDATE: It's a bit hard to tell but Iain has been visiting and states that the perverse spin was from the Bow Group and not ID. Fair enough. So he only re-published this tosh without comment. Probably he'll have corrected their figures by now? He's still playing hard to get when it comes to Maidstone and Weald or being a PPC in general.

8 comments:

Iain Dale said...

Oh do give it a rest. You know perfectly well that all that is from the Bow Group report. Do you not recognise indented quotes in blogs? Clearly not.

Secondly, I don't know where you get this rubbish about me "campaigning" to be the next MP for Maidstone & the Weald. Nothing could be further from the truth. For one thing, I haven't even decided whether to apply to stand at the next election or not. Got it? Good.

jailhouselawyer said...

Don't say I didn't tell you.

Is Dave trying to strangle that puppy?

BTW, interesting developments in the McCann case...I told you so...

Chris Paul said...

Hi Iain

Must say I was a bit confused by the indent - particularly after reading the Exec Summary of the Bow Group report - which said no such thing. And sorry, it does read like some of yours.

Can only conclude that the Bow Group report must be sloppy. Whoever wrote the bit about the £2000 tax burden on London households needs to be taken outside the building and shot.

No doubt you will point our the gross BG mistake?

On Maidstone I do think your silence on the matter is of interest.

It is almost 18 months since the idea of Ms A Widdy leaving the building was first aired, yes.

But no contest has begun, the Observer piece was a tease about possibly staying in the case of an early election, and you are of course a confidante of both Mr Marre and Ms Widdecombe. AFAIK.

You're surely not saying that only Toty bloggers are allowed to develop running jokes and lightly tease political opponents?

That would not be fair.

Best wishes

Chris P

PS Clearly if you'd like to be an MP you should compete for some of the deliciously safe seats that are to come on the market in the coming months. You would be better than many of the buggers currently on the Tory benches.

Chris Paul said...

HI John

1. Didn't tell me what?
2. Ancient Tory customs
3. Statistics indicate low odds on partners when wives and hubbies get killed, and mums and/or dads when it is kids. So it's a good punt.

We'll see.

jailhouselawyer said...

I told you that Iain wasn't in the running for Wigglybum's old seat...

Chris Paul said...

Oh John, I didn't see that ... was that based on the local association not shortlisting him? AFAIK the process hasn't started yet and AW is now saying she will hang on in the event of an early election.

Or was it simply based on Mr Dale's own protesting too much?

Anonymous said...

ref Iain Dale not standing in wiggies seat, -he's been bloody seen visiting the constituency recently which he can not deny- he is even quoted in that closed shop of a commentary blog uk polling as having been sited there. Wiggy loves gay boys, anybody know why. Crossley of Falmouth fame is also in a sulk cos his political career has been tarnished by the Falmouth theatricals and would luv wiggies seat. Wiggy luvved Crossley as well and I am sure would like him to be a successor. There is no love lost though between Crossley and Dale boy, as friends say open Crosslegs would scratch Dales eyes out if he had the chance of getting close. All this luvvy duvvy stuff between gay boys in the tory party does not go down well in the right of the party.
I dont think Dale has a chance as he is a bore as a personality with his perma drone voice, and Crossley has to much of a murky past which will be dragged up as soon as he peers behind the curtain.

Anonymous said...

Another caption for the photograph could be:

OSCAR WILDE TEACHES THE YOUNG PUP ALFIE DOUGLAS SOME NEW TRICKS.