I think we have another year of 'No, you don't understand! The focus groups show we can't increase income tax!!' while the voters fail to thank them for this and while trying to get five per cent of GDP's worth of defence out of 2.3 per cent of poorly administered spending:
Reposted from
Richard F Adams Man of Stuff
There’s no other way left for them.
Comments
It's the "and *you* need to pay more in tax/take less in spending to cover it" that's hard (nor is it any easier to persuade bond markets that we're totally good for it).
We can make this really complicated but there's no need.
Feels like the equivalent of "why are you wasting money on NHS managers and administrators? Just MAKE IT MORE EFFICIENT!".
The role of government is to plan and lead not follow the voters.
Sometimes you have to spend money on things you'd rather not to protect what little you have.
A wealth tax could be easier to sell. Though it would be subject to backlash.
Labour would have to sell it and - to date - they've proven awful at that kind of thing.
But what's definitely needed is wealth and property taxes, the top have been avoiding tax for decades and squirrelling it away, time to pay up
Apart from very well off people who are the main beneficiaries, very few people really understand it.
Restrict it to basic rate tax and you still get the policy aim (more saving by median person) but save c. 1/3 of this.
Ring fence it for defence, pitched as "investing in local industry" to Blue Labour and "Helping our European neighbours" to the more progressive and internationalist Labour voter.
Far too sensible to catch on.
Next you'll be suggesting that we shouldn't have marginal tax rates that approach 70%!
He had spent a decade as an MOD auditor - clueless & lacked an ounce of common sense or financial prudence.
No wonder there are regular contract overspends if they’re all like that.
Need more people, more weapons/ammo/platforms and more of it at readiness, which will take much greater industrial capacity/capability.
https://youtu.be/lfI0dtgXu0A?si=5EBG4_S_E5BLb9E7
What an utter shower. Again.
Ideas 💡
- National war bonds
-National security emergency means tested tax
- deep alignment w EU (+2.2% GDP) https://bsky.app/profile/best...
- use Russian seized funds
https://bsky.app/profile/leviathanwilde.bsky.social/post/3ligzzr5vtk2f
Take the pain now / ignore focus groups.
Insane as policy, but yeah, understandable as politics/'narrative'.
At a time when trust in conventional politics is already vertiginously low, do you see any danger in simply breaking those pledges?
1) be entirely unprepared for worsening geopolitical conditions
2) public services get even worse
3) taxes increase
Then my suspicion is that 3 is an easier sell to people than 1 or 2. I could be wrong.
See also: the cost saving efficiency fairy.
And: why don't they just build the houses on brownfield sites?