Clamour for tax cuts
It really is incredible that in a country where every public service (health, social care, children's services social housing, transport - take your pick) is clearly on its knees, the BBC's round-up of the press this morning should be headlined with a "Clamour for Tax Cuts." These come from the Tory-favouring press: the Mail, Telegraph and Express leading the charge.
It is hard to believe that anyone will be taken in by this fantasy, but clearly our Conservative government thinks thy will, and this "clamour" is presumably orchestrated by their very effective PR machine.
After a weekend in which it is hard to avoid the impression that both the Prime Minister and the then Home Secretary went out our their way to provoke discord and disruption around the Remembrance ceremonies, the ridiculous concept of "declaring" Rwanda a "Safe country" by British Parliamentary law, thus making it safe, and the inhumane suggestions that the already inadequate social service payments may be further cut, it is hard to see the UK remaining a member of the advanced, civilised, rational, liberally democratic countries.
In 2002 Theresa May warned the Conservatives that they were in danger of being seen as "the nasty party." Twenty years later, which include Mrs May's own contribution to fulfilling the prediction with her "hostile environment" for immigrants, the Conservatives are well in their way to turning us into a nasty country.
Conservatives like to claim that our tax take today is at its highest level since the War. This is true. What they do not say is that, compared with other similar countries, our tax take is modest
Figures from the impartial OBR, for the most recent year available (2021) show the UK’s percentage of GDP taken in tax is 33.5%. This is 3.3% BELOW the G7 average, and 6.4% BELOW the average for the EU14 (similarly advanced developed countries)
There is plenty of scope to repair the neglect of the last 13 years and make this a decent society for all to live n
We must hope that the electorate will show their contempt for this creative "clamour" by treating the Tories with deserved disdain at the coming election, and that a progressive government emerges which is honest enough to recognise that we get what we pay for and increases the tax take to restore us to a country in which we can be proud to live.
Figures from the impartial OBR, for the most recent year available (2021) show the UK’s percentage of GDP taken in tax is 33.5%. This is 3.3% BELOW the G7 average, and 6.4% BELOW the average for the EU14 (similarly advanced developed countries)
ReplyDeleteBut it's still far too high. That other countries are even worse doesn't mean we shouldn't try to be better.
a progressive government emerges which is honest enough to recognise that we get what we pay for
If only we did get what we paid for! But we don't, because so much money is simply wasted by the public sector.
Yes, some is, particularly by the Ministry of Defence, and vanity schemes such as HS2 and Johnson's silly wire and flower bridge across the Thames. But on the whole departments and local government spend money wisely and productively.
ReplyDeleteBut on the whole departments and local government spend money wisely and productively.
DeleteNo; on the whole they spaff it up the wall, as I gather the phrase of the moment is. That some small amount of it does manage to accident something useful is practically a miracle.