Reading Liberal Democrats

Georgina Hughes is a Liberal Democrat activist in Reading, below she writes a guest post on our recent wine tasting evening.

On Saturday twenty local Liberal Democrats gathered at St Barnabas Hall in Caversham to enjoy an evening of wine tasting from The Liberal Club. The event was hosted by Robin Bentham, who lead us through a journey around the world – old and new – through eight splendid wines. His wife, Eve, provided us with very tasty cheese and crackers to help soak up the wine; this was something I for one was very grateful of!

We started with four white wines from Germany, Australia, France, and Chile. Robin gave us details of where the grapes were grown, why they were grown the way they are, and the methods of wine production. In good Liberal fashion we paused to have a raffle (for yet more wine). The latter half of the evening consisted of four red wines from France, Chile, and Australia. Robin helped us explore the bouquets and flavours in the wines. He also talked to us about blending wines and the significance of vintages.

Each table was supplied with a waste bucket, but my table’s bucket was suspiciously empty… By glass number seven I thought I perhaps should stop. However, with only one to go how could I possibly refuse!? In a nod to the forthcoming referendum an Alternative Vote ballot was held in order to choose the groups favourite wines. The winner was a very tasty red from South Australia.

We also had a game running throughout the evening to estimate how much each botttle cost, and then the total cost of the eight selected wines. Most people guessed around the £50 mark, with Paul Norris winning with a guess less than £1 out! The cost of the wines was £54.22, which just goes to show the consumption habits of our members!

This social event was open to non-members, and I had several very stimulating conversations through an alcohol enduced haze about the merits of the Lib Dems in coalition government, as well as the Alternative Vote system. Thanks to everyone who came, and for all the offers of support towards myself and the Party as a whole. We all had a very enjoyable evening.

Liberal Democrat Councillors in Reading were today welcoming the news that due to changes in the national tax system, implemented by Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government, 1,680 of Reading’s poorest residents have been lifted out of the personal income tax band altogether.

A further 66,200 residents will also find their tax situation better off, when the changes are implemented in April this year – paying up to £200 less per year in income tax.

When the coalition was formed the two parties agreed to implement a key Liberal Democrat policy that the personal allowance for income tax should be increased in order to help lower and middle-income earners.

The change is being funded with the money that would have been used to pay for the increase in Employee National Insurance thresholds proposed by the Conservatives, as well as revenues from increases in Capital Gains Tax rates for non-business assets.

After pressure from the Liberal Democrats the two parties also agreed to a longer-term policy objective of further increasing the personal allowance to £10,000, making further real terms steps each year towards this objective. Achieving this would provide much more tax fairness towards the poorest in our society, something Liberal Democrats are committed to.

Speaking about the great news Cllr Kirsten Bayes, Liberal Democrat Spokesman for Finance said,

“This is great news for thousands of Reading residents, especially for the 1,680 residents who are being lifted out of the threshold for paying income tax. This will be a really positive bit of news for those people, who are amongst the poorest in our communities, at a time when many are struggling. Liberal Democrats are continuing to push for yearly increases to the allowance until we reach £10,000 as the threshold. This would provide much more tax fairness towards the poorest in our society.”

In Reading the changes proposed to lift the threshold for paying income tax by £1,000 in April to a figure of £7475 means that approximately 1,680 residents in Reading will pay no income tax at all, while a further 66,200 will pay less. The figures have been calculated on publicly available statistics and are not exact numbers.