Former Tory to stand as Independent
Adam Hewitt • Published 23 Apr 2010 14:00
0 Comments
Share this
Robin Smith
See also:
A FORMER Tory councillor has quit the party to fight Wokingham as an Independent.
Robin Smith, who sits on Wokingham Town Council, resigned from the Conservatives on Wednesday and said none of the mainstream parties were doing enough to shake-up Britain's bureaucratic tax and welfare system.
Mr Smith, of London Road, Wokingham, told the Midweek: "The main thing for me is the lack of vision from the three main parties. They are willing for us to prop up the perpetrators of the financial crisis and credit crunch who coerced people who couldn't afford it to borrow too much money. My main proposal is a big cut in income tax and increases in taxes on unearned wealth, up to 100%. Stop taxing people's production and work."
He said the expenses scandal showed that some MPs were "morally wrong" but said it was a non-issue compared to unemployment and the state of the economy.
Mr Smith, 47, works for a Cambridge-based thinktank, the Systemic Fiscal Reform Group, and it is ideas coming out of that body which have informed his politics.
He said: "We've calculated that the country's wasting £200bn a year on bureaucratic, dead weight costs, in tax and welfare and subsidising the banks and property speculators. We need to maintain the health service, social services and education but much else that Government does can be reformed."
Mr Smith has lived in Wokingham for 16 years but comes originally from Harpenden, Herts. He spent 25 years as an engineer in the IT industry and is a keen mountain biker. He blogs at gco2e.blogspot.com
Visit sites.google.com/site/robinsmith3/robinsmith
For more election news, visit www.readingchronicle.co.uk/election2010
Return to the main index, get more from this section or browse our News archives.
