LET HOWARD BE REAGAN:

Howard casts himself in role as champion of the lowest paid (FRASER NELSON, 3/18/05, The Scotsman)

MICHAEL Howard is preparing to trump the Chancellor, Gordon Brown, in helping the lowest-paid workers by taking them out of the tax system altogether, rather than reducing their liability with tax credits.

The Conservative leader has told The Scotsman that the government has no claim to the salary of someone working 20 hours a week on the minimum wage and that his party would redress this.

He also said the Tories would consider scrapping the Human Rights Act, which he says is playing havoc with the legal system in England and Scotland and has allowed people to "get away with doing the wrong thing".

Arriving in Dumfries to address Scottish Conservatives’ spring conference today, Mr Howard pledged not to repeat Tony Blair’s tactics in Dundee, focusing on English policies that do not apply in devolved Scotland. He will instead seek to continue the party’s remarkable run of good luck, in which it has been able to set the agenda on issues including the council tax, immigration, policing and abortion.

Ditching Toryism for American-style conservatism has revived him, but he still hasn't touched the forbidden fruit--the EU, which cost Margaret Thatcher her leadership and plunged the Party into its recent confusions.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 18, 2005 8:15 AM