Two Great Conservatives Sir Bill Cash and Lord Peter Lilley

                  

                                 Chatting with the great Bill Cash 18 Jun 26 

         

                          Putting a question to Lord Peter Lilley 19 Jun 26

Spent a wonderful evening chatting to the Great Conservative Sir Bill Cash who I first met when he was applied to be the candidate for the Beaconsfield by-election in 1982.   What I didn't know was that he was brought up in Sheffield, my home town!   Bill lost his father just after D Day when he was four years old.   I lost my father at the Battle For Monte Natale when i was 16 months old.   We reminisced about old times.   Because of his height Bill was a good bowler and cricketer.  So good that he was invited to an interview by Yorkshire cricket club, whose Chairman at the time was the formidable Bill Bows! The first question Bill was asked was "Where were you born?" Bill replied that he wasn't born in Sheffield but he had been brought up there!   To which Bill Bows said "We only employ men born in Yorkshire for the Yorkshire cricket team."   End of bill's cricketing future.   Just imagine if he had been selected, we might have lost a great politician!

On Friday I went to the always excellent New Forest East Conservatives lunch where the guest speaker was Lord Peter Lilley.   I put the following question to him "I believe that a basic Conservative principle is that taxation should always be fair between people, groups of people and businesses, and yet far too often all political parties give favours to particular people, or groups of people.   For example the Reform Party promises to reduce VAT on pubs to 5%.   The Conservative Party promises particular favours to farmers regarding their Inheritance tax!   When these favours are given the Parties never say that as a result of the favour the rest of the people will pay more tax!   Equally political Parties penalise certain companies if they make a higher profit than expected by imposing special taxes on them such as the taxes on oil companies and the banks, because politicians know that these companies do not have any votes,   This seems to me to be wrong.   Do you agree and how can it be stopped?   Lord Lilley replied "Yes I do agree and the best way to stop this is to have low taxation and low regulation so that the temptation to interfere is diminished".   A good solid Conservative answer!