Unhappy to pay more tax
Peter Hoskin 8:57am
Do check out Janet Daley's comment piece in the Telegraph today. On her account, we've reached a political landmark:
“Something has snapped. I feel it in the air just as surely as I did in 1979 when the population of Britain decided, quite suddenly, that it had had enough. There is now - as there was then - an almost palpable anger, a shift of concrete significance in some very fundamental assumptions about how the Government operates, and even what people want from government generally......Whatever happened to all those people who used to say that they would be Happy To Pay More Tax? Remember them? They were a notable feature of virtually every opinion poll for a good 10 years.
Mr Brown has, I suspect, been relying heavily on the HTPMT brigade to sustain him through his years as PM just as he believed he could rely on them as Chancellor. Now, 67 per cent of people are telling the pollsters they believe they are paying too much tax. The rest of them are presumably lying, or else they are living on benefits...
...So where does this leave the Conservatives, currently sitting smugly on a decent lead in the polls but still tremulously holding back from any real philosophical break with a dying political consensus? In danger on two fronts: one is that the Brownites in their desperation will jump into the radical territory that should now be the natural ground of the Opposition, and the other is appearing to be as out of touch with popular anger and frustration as the Government, thereby leaving the country in despair of any real solutions...
...if there is a rising tide of public rage and exasperation, you should ride it to victory, and not be complicit with the deception that has provoked it.”
Thoughts, CoffeeHousers?
Previous
David
March 31st, 2008 9:38am Report this commentIt started well, but then segued into her usual rant about how the Conservatives should be offering tax cuts and more tax cuts.
Trumpeter Lanfried
March 31st, 2008 10:00am Report this comment'There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.'
This is a time for the Tories to show courage and leadership. That means, just for a start, no more tippy-toeing round the big tax/spend and welfare dependency/crime problems. They must be confronted, and tackled, with the grateful support of the silent majority.
CG
March 31st, 2008 10:11am Report this commentI'm not interested in tax cuts. It is not a vote winner. How many people are going to think 'oh good, I'll be bapying 2p in the pund less in tax'?
What I do want though is an assurance that my taxes are not being wasted and I haven't got this at the moment.
Jack Spratt
March 31st, 2008 10:12am Report this commentJanet Daley always was a bit slow on the uptake so its no surprise that its just dawned on her that we're all pissed off, hopping mad and spitting tacks. I don't think much of her butterfly-brained conclusions either.
An Accountant
March 31st, 2008 11:00am Report this comment'There is a tide in the affairs of men which taken at the flood leads on to fortune.'
But the first time Brutus said that everyone in the Globe knew that the Thames was not at the flood, other than Brutus. And look what happened to him!
Ian
March 31st, 2008 11:15am Report this commentI posted along these lines a couple of weeks ago. Why is it that none of our major parties are talking about reducing waste?
Ujima
March 31st, 2008 11:55am Report this commentIt's over. The Great New Labour Gravy Train Robbery is exposed for what it is. Public services costing ever more money to do ever little in the way of basic public services - all with a gold-plated pension for the staff.
What's got better? Law? Health? Education, education, education? They're all screwed.
Comrade Lenin
March 31st, 2008 12:06pm Report this commentSo typical of the Torygraph to publish an article suggesting that this proud nation is unwilling to pay more tax. In this great age of change we should all bow to our Supreme Leader Groucho Brown and his massive spending spree. Had it not been for this New Age of Brownite-Ballsism, we would have had the disgraceful spectacle of a country with a budget surplus, low taxes, clean hospitals, high cancer survival rates, literate school-leavers, an efficient transport system, a highly productive labour force, low numbers of economically inactive people, low inflation, low trade deficit….etc, etc. May I applaud Comrade Brown for protecting us from these evils of capitalism thrust upon us by the former bourgeois Thatcherite regime.
EyeSee
March 31st, 2008 1:24pm Report this commentIt seems to me that people so miss the point. New Labour are not raising taxes for great Socialist principles. They don't set out to annoy or destroy. Because to do so would suggest a desire to govern. New Labour is a construct merely designed to win an election after 18 years in the wilderness. There is no ideology, good or bad. The original clique (including the demonic Mandelson) realised that people vote for style over substance, so they pushed spin to the fore and that the rules in Parliament lacked any teeth if they were ignored. These are 'Right Honourable' gentlemen after all. Consequently lies became the tool rather than achievement. When caught out Blair would just say 'so what?' (move on). Naturally such lazy people, with no talent or integrity just throw money at issues rather than work at the job. Hence higher taxes and failure, which are linked but only through the prism of New Labour. This is not a political party, so don't blame their failure on socialism (that achieves much the same result though!). New Labour are just parasites who have lied to seize and hold power.
Guy Incognito
March 31st, 2008 1:48pm Report this commentNow see here, Hoskin. Stop the changing the subject. I won a t-shirt fair and square in your 'Ask Clegg' competition, but you still haven't replied to my email asking how I claim it.
Pete Hoskin
March 31st, 2008 2:40pm Report this commentGuy Incognito: my sent items folder tells me that I replied to you last week, but I guess it didn't get through. Basically you need to e-mail me with your address/sizing details, and we'll get a t-shirt onto you.
Guy Incognito
March 31st, 2008 3:34pm Report this commentThanks. I didn't mean to get all Guy Ritchie on you.
Pete
March 31st, 2008 7:36pm Report this commentEyeSee, spot on. You've summed up new Labour better than any media pundit. Your piece should be required reading in history classes in years to come when future generations study these times.
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