Meanwhile, in more examples of sloppy Labour arguments here’s a tweet Jim Murphy sent this afternoon:
Oh dear. Murphy is usually better than this. I know and everyone else who pays any attention to Scottish politics (this includes Jim Murphy) knows that Alex Salmond has long admired the Republic of Ireland’s low corporation taxes; he has almost never bothered talking about personal or consumption taxes.
Furthermore, few sensible people think Ireland’s boom and bust was fuelled by or made significantly worse by its low rates of corporation tax. To hint otherwise, as Murphy seems to here, is either foolish or dishonest. It is possible to think low business taxes a good thing while also supposing it might be a good idea to avoid the mistakes and excesses that led Ireland to bankruptcy.
Granted, Salmond and the SNP are, generally speaking, more interested in lowering taxes on business than on income or consumption but that’s a different matter and one Murphy would be better-off addressing. Even on Twitter.
Because you can’t defeat Salmond by pointing at everything that’s miserable in Ireland. In any case, what is the question Murphy is asking: perhaps something like, “You praised Ireland’s competitive tax rates, now they have hiked VAT to 23%, nanananananana, aren’t you just a bunch of numpties?” To which the sensible answers are: “Don’t be such a tube, Jim” and “Can’t you do better than that?”
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