The Loose Cannon @ No. 10

"Duck, mi old pal!" Arturo said.

"Why what's wrong?" I asked nervously.

"Watch out for those cannon balls that are flying this way." Arturo, crouching low, pointed dramatically to a Guardian headline:

Downing Street files reveal how Oliver Letwin kept poll tax plans alive

The article by Alan Travis stated:

A young adviser to Margaret Thatcher who is now a minister for David Cameron explicitly suggested that Scotland be used as a testing ground for the introduction of the poll tax, the flagship policy that was eventually to topple her as prime minister.

Oliver Letwin, now a Cabinet Office minister, emerges in official papers publicly released on Tuesday as the man who single-handedly kept the idea of the poll tax alive in the mid 1980s despite attempts by two senior ministers to strangle it at birth.

Travis ended commenting:

The steamroller was to prove unstoppable all the way to the mass riots of 1990 after its introduction into England and Wales – and its role in triggering Thatcher’s downfall six months later.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/dec/30/downing-street-files-oliver-letwin-poll-tax

The Telegraph, in an article by Gregory Walton, stated:

David Cameron’s policy chief Oliver Letwin lobbied Margaret Thatcher to force through the "poll tax" despite warnings from leading ministers that it would be politically "catastrophic", it has emerged.

Letwin, then a policy wonk at Number 10 and now Minister for Government Policy, persuaded the Prime Minister to defy both her Home Secretary and Chancellor and retain the tax officially known as the Community Charge.

The scheme, a forebear of council tax, proved disastrous with widespread rioting and Cabinet dissent over the scheme which was characterised by its detractors as a tax on voting.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/11316656/David-Camerons-policy-chief-lobbied-for-poll-tax-despite-warnings.html

So there you have it in a nutshell! Here was - Oliver 'Loose Cannon' Letwin - the 'policy wonk' of Thatcher, of Iron Lady fame, being shown to have pulled the plug on her career. What it is to have friends and advisers! But Thatcher wasn't the only one who had their career cannon-balled by Oliver ''Loose Cannon' Letwin. No siree - just take a gander at this from the New Statesman:

Oliver Letwin's biggest gaffes

In this article, George Eaton wrote:

... Letwin, then shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, was forced to go into hiding during the 2001 election campaign after briefing newspapers that the Conservatives planned to cut taxes by £20bn, far more than the £8bn promised by William Hague. He told the Financial Times that he was "190 per cent" confident that the Tories could offer additional cuts.

A furious Michael Portillo [then shadow chancellor] replied: "The figures are not right. I have made it perfectly clear that in the first budget I am only committed to £2.2bn worth of tax cuts and that is to produce the reduction in the tax on fuel ... At the end of my second year, I will have produced £8bn of tax cuts."

But the damage was done, with Labour producing "wanted" posters for Letwin.

Incredibly, Letwin, by now shadow chancellor, all but repeated the error three years later when he was secretely recorded telling the Institute of Economic Affairs that he would like to cut public spending by billions more than planned but that it would be electorally disastrous to do so.

Letwin said that his preference would be to cut spending to "shall we say 35 or 30 per cent of Gross Domestic Spending" - rather than the 40 per cent planned by the Tories. His comments were political gold for Gordon Brown, who replied: "These are the most amazing admissions. We know he was committed to £18bn of spending cuts but now, by cutting public spending from 42 per cent to 30 per cent of GDP, he would cut £150bn. That is the equivalent of cutting health and schools from the public budget."

http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/10/letwin-cut-ideas-exist-20bn

At the 2001 Election, it was William 'Cocky-Boy' Hague who lost the chance to become Prime Minister and then resigned from the Leadership of the Tory Party!

So two balls fired from the badly aimed sights of Oliver 'Loose Cannon' Letwin and, with uncanny accuracy, two Tory leaders felled! What's it they say about 3rd time lucky!! Well, all Arturo and I can do is hope that 'Boy David' Cameron was given a sturdy flak-jacket for Christmas. Why? Well - where to begin?

1. There will be a General Election in May 2015

2. Oliver 'Loose Cannon' Letwin holds a senior position in Cameron's Cabinet!

No - really - I kid you not. Despite his amazing dexterity at wounding his party leaders - someone, somewhere, somehow thinks Letwin has a brain cell! Yes! Really! They must do. Why? Because 'Loose Cannon' Letwin is - wait for it - Minister for Government Policy. Yes! You did read that correctly - this 'policy wonk' who doesn't know his Poll Tax from disaster or his Budget predictions from gibberish is now the leading light in guiding POLICY for Cameron!!!

You couldn't make this story up - if you tried! Not even Spielberg could have written a better script!

Arturo and I are off to the Sales to see if we can buy some tough cannonball-proof outerwear! Then we're off for some fish & chips!

Bye