Your MP - somebody voted for him

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
Better to tax something you know will sell anyway, assuming you don't give a shit about the people buying it.
 

McPhee

Well-Known Forumite
That's just the party whip in effect. Tory MPs weren't given a free vote on the tax, and it's not a big enough issue to prompt many to rebel.
 

proactive

Enjoying a drop of red.
It wasn't a vote to scrap the tax but a vote to enter into negotiations with the EU to see if they would be prepared to let us scrap the tax.

Hardly the most important issue of our time...
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
It wasn't a vote to scrap the tax but a vote to enter into negotiations with the EU to see if they would be prepared to let us scrap the tax.

Hardly the most important issue of our time...
I expect that you may be told where you can shove that sort of attitude....

One does have to wonder how much the final price would actually drop if the tax was removed.
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
That's just the party whip in effect. Tory MPs weren't given a free vote on the tax, and it's not a big enough issue to prompt many to rebel.

Which, lets face it, proves 'your' MP thinks more of the party than of the constituents they 'represent'. Quite why they won't look at it is interesting, if razors are exempt yet shaving is a choice I fail to see how they can't find sanitary towels exempt?

The fact that the Tories felt the need to invoke the whip on this rather than let the MPs vote for their constituents is also telling, the price change will be negligible to all but the absolute poorest but refusing to even consider it and forcing their MPs to agree with them proves how little they think of you. Can't help wonder how much of this is fallout for the paupers laughing at Dave the pig ****er?
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
Quite why they won't look at it is interesting, if razors are exempt yet shaving is a choice I fail to see how they can't find sanitary towels exempt?
I believe that that may be a red herring - does shaving equipment and materials, male or female, not actually attract the full 20% VAT?
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
You may indeed be correct there, as I'm at work I hadn't googled thoroughly.

Still, invoking the whip on a plan to talk about possibly removing the 5% tax?
 

That-Crazy-Rat-Lady

Well-Known Forumite
I believe that that may be a red herring - does shaving equipment and materials, male or female, not actually attract the full 20% VAT?

'Campaigners have also noted men’s sanitary items, such as razors, are viewed as essential and are not liable for tax.'

From the article :)
 

McPhee

Well-Known Forumite
Which, lets face it, proves 'your' MP thinks more of the party than of the constituents they 'represent'. Quite why they won't look at it is interesting, if razors are exempt yet shaving is a choice I fail to see how they can't find sanitary towels exempt?

The fact that the Tories felt the need to invoke the whip on this rather than let the MPs vote for their constituents is also telling, the price change will be negligible to all but the absolute poorest but refusing to even consider it and forcing their MPs to agree with them proves how little they think of you. Can't help wonder how much of this is fallout for the paupers laughing at Dave the pig ****er?

Doesn't make much difference which party it is though - they all use the whip where it isn't necessarily needed, or where a more reasonable result could be had from allowing MPs a free vote.

I'm not necessarily sticking up for Mr Leffroy here. Where he has had a free vote, I haven't necessarily agreed with his choices. But to say that he agrees with this tax isn't necessarily true. He simply doesn't have enough of a problem with it to rebel and go against the leadership. He might support it, or he might not.

I'm not sure why the Tory leadership wants to keep this tax, but I'm not surprised to see very few MPs defying the whip on an issue that (being realistic) has very little impact. A 5% tax is tiny, its removal would be insignificant to the cost of the product. Considering the big picture, it's probably not worth the cost of rebelling. Rebels don't tend to get stuff that they ask for.

It's an unfortunate symptom of our political system, but I'd rather have Mr Leffroy lobbying for things the town actually wants/needs than have him rebelling over small matters.
 
Last edited:

That-Crazy-Rat-Lady

Well-Known Forumite
I purchased a meter of Jaffa Cakes for Christmas from ASDA a few years ago -

As I picked it up I heard a lad behind me say:

'Phooor she likes a Jaffa!'

I giggled all the way home..
 

tek-monkey

wanna see my snake?
The idea that they are using the whip for something trivial still says to me they are just being arseholes, if it doesn't matter allow a real vote. This is just about not wanting Labour to get something they tabled.
 

Gramaisc

Forum O. G.
The VAT on tampons was dropped from 17.5% to 5% in 2000, after a campaign by Dawn Primarolo, under a New Labour government.

I'm not a 100% sure, but I believe that they were initially at 15% in 1973 and dropped to the lower of the two rates, 8%, under the Wilson Labour government, before being raised back up again later, though I'm not really sure when.
 
Top