The punk tax cutters get what they want with hilarious consequences

You've got to laugh. Or at least I had to laugh.

Yesterday the Tories did what all the punk tax cutters wanted them to do. They called for a cut in taxes netted off against specific savings.

And guess what? The punk tax cutters didn't like it.

They say it is too small, they say it is too complicated, they wonder if the savings will be forthcoming, they argue that it won't help create jobs.

I thought some of those were supposed to be my lines.

All the doubts they have about yesterday's scheme are precisely why I don't think the Tories (or anyone else) should be medddling around with these things.

What happened with yesterday's tax proposals is what has happened every single time the Tories have made such an announcement since 1997. It never, ever works. And even the people who say they want it don't support it.

The only exception was inheritance tax. But crucially that was not a tax cut it was a tax reform, with one cut paid for by another raise.

Comments

[Simon Stephenson]

How can you possibly have a proper discussion about tax if you start from the presumption that there is so much scope for beneficial state spending that it is socially irresponsible for its volume to be curtailed other than by the availability of funding to pay for it?

Why not start from the point of view that confiscating resources from private individuals is a priori a wrong thing to do, and that it can only have justification in areas of provision where it can clearly be demonstrated that there is no workable alternative to a state-funded system?

Or, perhaps, from somewhere in the middle?

Is it not at least arguable that some public spending is sub-optimal not because it is inefficiently administered, but because of the very fact that it is conducted in the public sector?

You can't seriously talk about tax if a pre-requisite is to accept that national prosperity is held in check mainly by an irrational reluctance of the general public to be more heavily taxed.

[Guido Fawkes]

Actually this punk tax cutter wants them to cut spending in non-productive areas and put money in the pockets of consumers.

What is your plan to stimulate the economy?

[Louise]

A lot of your problems, Daniel, with the proposal are a lot of the problems we "punk tax-cutters" have with it.

Maybe it's just a completely lousy or ill-timed set of policies that the Tories should be utterly ashamed of? Moreover, if they spend this much time trailing this dog's breakfast, perhaps they just don;t have much to say?