We’ve heard much in recent days during the great Tory leadership struggle about tax cuts, and no doubt we will be hearing far more in the coming days.
So why are tax cuts so important to Tories? The answer is simple. The majority of paid-up members of the Conservative party, who will be voting shortly to choose a new Prime Minister, are well off. Some are captains of industry, earning megga bucks, some are landed rich, some are property rich while some are silver spooners.
And for someone earning, say 250,000 pounds a year a 1p cut in income tax would give him or her 2,500 pounds straight in the wallet, while someone on the average pay of around 25,000 pounds would get just 25 pounds extra.
Put simply, the better off you are, the more you will press for tax cuts, while the poorer are conned into thinking that a tax cut will benefit them, while, in reality, it makes very little difference.
What would make a real difference would be a meaningful cut in the VAT on essentials, like food, fuel, gas and electricity – and to pay for that, VAT should be increased on luxury goods. But you will never hear a Conservative suggesting that, because it would hit them more.
For years we have been hearing the Tories banging on about “levelling up” – which in their world means putting more investment in the north of the country. Cynics would say the policy is a gimmick to get more votes in northern constituencies – and at the last election it worked, although I believe the election of Tories north of Watford Gap was more about the fear of Corbyn and nationalise everything left wingers getting into power.
Levelling up should mean, in a fair society, policies to give more help to poorer people but we have seen little of that in the last 12 years of Tory rule. In fact, the opposite is the case, with the rich getting richer and the poor poorer, year after year.
In my job as a newspaper editor, I attended many business meetings and dinners and listened to company bosses swapping stories about how they have managed to reduce the tax they pay – as if that was something to be proud of. The more oiled they became after a few drinks the more they patted themselves on the back.
No-one likes to pay tax – in fact in biblical times tax collectors were looked upon as the lowest of the low. But taxes are essential for the well-being of the country, provided it is properly spent and not used to feather the nests of those in power.
We have seen year after year, the Tory government cutting public spending on the altar of cutting taxes. And the result now is Britain in a terrible mess. Waiting lists for doctors’ appointments and hospital waiting lists are at an all-time high, because the NHS is grossly underfunded. We have a road and rail network which is the laughing stock of Europe. One example of this is where I live in West Sussex, where we have an A road with a level crossing with barriers down against traffic more than they are up – with resulting traffic chaos.
Multiply that across the country with years of under-funding and you can see how Britain has become grossly uncompetitive compared with the continent. I can drive 100 miles on superb continental motorways in little more than an hour. Trying to drive 100 miles on congested and inadequate roads in the UK takes twice and often three times longer.
Tory spending cuts have resulted in reductions in the police to the extent that some forces don’t even bother to record minor crime and certainly not investigate it.
Education standards in schools have deteriorated, and when it comes to local government services – well ‘heaven help the public’. Refuse collection, road maintenance, street cleaning, upkeep of public spaces have all taken a hammering.
Local government services could so easily be improved by adding a few additional bands at the top so that people owning mansions pay much more council tax. And why not tax second home owners more, especially those who have holiday homes they rent out in the summer and keep empty in the winter, destroying the villages where holiday homes proliferate.
So, when you hear right wing politicians banging on about tax cuts the remarks are pointed to the selfish brigade, who are more than happy to have tax cuts, and the bigger the better. Why? Because it is they who have the income and capital to pay for private health, private education and private care in their old age and couldn’t care less about how people who have far less money than they have are struggling.
Britain has had too many years of right-wing government which has brought about increased unfairness. The last three years has been an utter disaster with a government with an 80-seat majority, which has allowed them to think they can do virtually anything and get away with it.
That must never happen again. Nor should Britain keep on lurching from right to left in politics. We see it falling apart in America with Republicans v Democrats at each others’ throats. Luckily in Britain we have a viable third party, the Lib Dems, who, if people would only give them a real chance at election time they could make a real and positive improvement in Britain’s future.
Oh yes, Tories and Labour will unite at general election time to do their utmost, aided and abetted by the Tory and Labour press to discredit Lib Dems. At the next election let’s hope people will at last see those smear campaigns for what they really are.
