Saturday 21 July 2012

Time for tax cuts...

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...and not just because the stimulus they'll bring will help economic growth but because they are popular. Yes folks the age of people meekly telling pollsters they'll happily pay more tax "for the NHS" or some such weakness are over:

One in three British adults think taxes should be cut and the amount of funding for social housing reduced, according to a survey by a left-leaning think tank.

A survey of 2,000 people carried out by Yougov for the Labour-affiliated Fabian Society think tank shows 32 per cent of people agree that ‘tax rates should fall to pay for less provision’ of public housing.

A total of 35 per cent said the current balance is about right with just 16 per cent saying tax rates should rise to pay for more social housing services.

The survey showed that 72 per cent of people think social housing should be means-tested or partly paid for by the taxpayer. Nine per cent said there should be no state funding for social housing at all.

The findings also showed that two in three people think funding for programmes to help people out of work is too high or about right.

A total of 27 per cent think taxes should be cut to pay for less help for the unemployed, with 40 per cent saying the balance is about right.

Just 16 per cent said there should be higher taxes to fund more services to help people out of work.
The whining mithering left-wing commentariat are wrong - both about the economics and also the politics. And it's the welfare budget that ordinary folk have their eyes set on - the idea that we can give people just enough money that, despite a pretty depressing life, they have an active disincentive to risk that position.

So, rather than pouring endless cash into the bottomless pit of bank balance sheets, or squandering billions of 'grand projects', let's cut taxes for ordinary people. Raise the tax threshold to the minimum wage, cut the basic rate of tax to 15% and lower the top rate to 40%. We might have to lose a few civil servants (perhaps ministers would like to start with their own offices - all those 'special advisors' are an utter waste of cash) and close down some much loved programmes. But the population will have cash in its pockets, cash to spend on food, on home improvements, on clothes - on the things like holidays they can't afford at the moment.

And wouldn't that help just a little? And wouldn't it put a little deep blue water between the Conservatives and that subsidiary of public sector trade unionism, the Labour Party?

Go on George, you know you want to!

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1 comment:

Frances Coppola said...

I don't think I'd want to pay for programmes to help people out of work. I might want to pay to help them into work, though. :0