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This sneering Coalition is the last chance saloon. We need growth - and we need it NOW

By Adam Afriyie

PUBLISHED: 01:01, 24 February 2013 | UPDATED: 01:01, 24 February 2013

Adam Afriyie, Tory Candidate for Windsor, says the Coalition needs to create growth

We need simple, bold economic policies to win the next election. Next month, George Osborne will deliver his fourth Budget. Since 2010, despite the constraints of coalition, there has been clear economic progress. The deficit has been reduced. The private sector has created one million new jobs. Income tax has been cut for 24 million people.

But it is not enough. What is needed is economic growth � and we need it now.

The Coalition is about to enter the last chance saloon. On Friday the UK lost its AAA credit rating, with Moody�s citing a lack of growth for its downgrade decision.

Without growth, the Government will not secure a Conservative majority in 2015. For all the cuts and austerity, core Government spending has been reduced by only three per cent since May 2010 and the national debt will actually increase by 58 per cent over the course of the Parliament.

This Budget is a final opportunity to deliver real growth before 2015. Grandiose infrastructure projects have their place but they do not deliver immediate economic benefits. What we need are bold, simple, serious measures to secure growth right now.

Years of political expedience have left us with a ridiculous, horrendously complicated tax system that actually penalises wealth creation, undermining the quest for new jobs and growth.

Entrepreneurs are deterred from starting businesses by high rates of tax on success, while companies are discouraged from hiring new staff by a bizarre tax on jobs called employers� National Insurance.

In recent months, the ongoing tax debate has lost its rationale. The aim of the tax system is not merely to raise more cash for the Exchequer; nor was it created so that politicians could use it as a vehicle to demonstrate their political ethics.

Its raison d��tre in any modern society must be to deliver jobs and economic growth. Our current system acts as one long line of massive barriers to growth. These barriers can be removed only by simplifying the tax regime.

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The Coalition has made a great start by raising the individual tax allowance. I believe that now is the time to move above and beyond the �10,000 target.

It makes sound economic and social sense: raising the allowance again will let people keep even more of their money, incentivise work and give people more freedom to make decisions for themselves.

We should also introduce plans to gradually abolish employers� National Insurance. New jobs are needed to secure the economic recovery. Why, then, retain a nonsensical tax on jobs?
George Osborne has come under pressure to deliver growth in the next budgetGeorge Osborne has come under pressure to deliver growth in the next budget
Adam Afriyie says the Coalition under Prime Minister David Cameron has not done enough to create growth

The Coalition has not done enough to deliver growth under the direction of David Cameron and George Osborne

We must be equally bold when it comes to corporation tax. The Government�s gradual reduction in corporation tax is a step in the right direction, but to make Britain an attractive place to invest we must accelerate the cut and head rapidly towards the 12.5 per cent rate that Ireland has to instantly make Britain the most attractive place in Europe to do business.

We need short-term measures too. A temporary reduction in capital gains tax on business investments in the Budget would immediately open the floodgates for UK and global investment into Britain, at no cost to the Exchequer in the medium term.

Some growth policies are so simple it�s a scandal we haven�t implemented them before now. Take electronic invoicing.

According to a recent article in these pages, the Government doesn�t take e-invoicing too seriously. The Treasury should do its homework. Blanket adoption of e-invoicing in the public sector will save taxpayers billions each year and make a very real contribution to economic growth.

The UK e-Invoicing Advocacy Group estimates that implementing the system would save between �4 billion and �6 billion per year and adoption in the wider economy could save about �12 billion annually.

I come from a background in business. Before entering politics, I founded and operated businesses that now employ hundreds of people. I know first-hand how hard it is to get a business off the ground and make it a success.

When you start a business you never know if you�re making a massive mistake. You never know whether it�s going to work. And it takes over every part of your life.

Adam Afriyie says: 'Look after the paperclips, and the growth will look after itself'

It�s these risk-taking entrepreneurs, sole traders, hard-working small business owners, our national and international companies � and the millions of employees who work extremely hard to make them a success � who will secure Britain�s economic recovery, not bureaucrats in Whitehall.

Businesses, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), are the lifeblood of the UK economy. Without them our country would face an even bigger challenge.

But life is very tough for businesses in the UK, and it�s particularly hard for the dedicated, committed and creative people who work for them.

The majority of businesses have done everything they can to get through the recession. They�ve taken all our advice and run with it.

They�ve streamlined their operations, reduced costs and prices, improved performance, embraced new technology, developed new products, fought for new business, discovered new markets, diversified and done all they can to survive and continue to provide jobs for people in their communities.

But how do we, the Government and politicians, treat them in return? How do we view the people who follow their dreams, build businesses, create products, employ people and, yes, make money?

In general, not very well at all. We devalue their contribution, sneer at them and spend our time looking for ways to make life even harder.

This has to stop. If we�re to achieve sustainable growth we need to stop beating up the only people who can solve our economic problems.

We need to start treating them properly, start celebrating their success. We should be proud of their achievements, treat them as role models, and take every opportunity to support them and help them grow.

The Government must therefore do all it can to make life simpler for SMEs. Everyone knows there�s too much red tape flowing here from Brussels. Now is the time to stop talking about it and start cutting it.

It also means taking a long, hard look at how we can reform the process of government in Whitehall.

These simple, straightforward proposals may not be idiot, they may not have the allure of grand government projects, but they will kick-start growth and help secure a Conservative Party majority in 2015.

Look after the paperclips, and the growth will look after itself.

STILL THE SAME OLD STORY WHERE IS THE INNOVATION NEEDED TO REALLY GIVE OUR COUNTRY A FUTURE NOT RULED BY MORONS OR THE EU, THERE IS NONE, SAME RULES DIFFERENT PEOPLE WITH NOSES IN TROUGH, THIS MUST END ONCE AND FOR ALL.

What our future leader has forgotten is our being shackled to the EU and all the expense and diktats of that, a nice little earner for our politicians but tax upon tax for our people, not only do we need to get out of that prison but we need to get rid of ALL immigrants that have come here through it, we can then get rid of 50% of public non-job workers who were shirking on their behalf, not forgetting our new GODS called councillors.

After we get out of the EU and sent back all those immigrants legal or otherwise we can turn our attention to Islam the fifth column in our country, gone will be the racial discriminations laws,like France there will be a ban on the Bhurka. End the breeding ground for terrorists their religious schools not forgetting an end to Halal meat in this country, its disgraceful the way these animals die.
When in Rome springs to mind, there will be no more placards saying they will cut off our heads or they will take over our country because they will not be in our country any more.

We need to get rid of the PC brigade and get judges who will give real prison sentences in real tough prisons, even bringing back hanging so that we again have law in our country.
All young men from 18 to 21 to get training in the use of weapons and at least a trade by the time they are 21.
The end of single girls becoming pregnant to get homes and a life long income working on their backs will end, state nurseries will take care of that while the women work.
Work for the unemployed to be provided by the government, help given to people wishing to start their own business with real back-up.
Bring back national pride and make people self reliant again.
Our main need is manufacturing, people will be encourage to buy British first, we need to get rid of the Banksters who have ruined our country and fund the pound on a gold standard, even wiping out all debt and starting again is possible, Abraham lincoln did it with his green dollar, so can we.

A whole top to bottom re-think of the NHS, get rid of the BBC and re-nationalise all our energy, water, transport and bring in new technology to grow enough food here in the UK for the people who live here.
This can be done, where there is a will there is a way but to do it we have to wipe away years of corruption, snouts in the trough, and non investment and bring back the one thing that is no longer here in our country, ACCOUNTABILITY.