In a wonderful example of stiff upped lipped British under statement the Institute for Fiscal Studies has released some research under the headline “Spending as much as other countries but taxing less is unlikely to be sustainable”.
Well doh, that’s obviously true, you might think. If you need to spend more you can either tax more or run up debts until they become unsustainable. But remember the last 45 years or so have been built on the lie that you can cut taxes and still have a well functioning state. You know an army, an NHS, courts and police that work, good transport and all the rest.
For years that lie was hidden by North sea oil revenue and periods of high growth mainly caused, we can now see, by membership of the EU.
But even then it could not last, if you want a government that works you need higher tax. Just look at the state of the health services of France and Germany, their transport infrastructure and their quality of life.
It is a simple fact of life, but no party will admit it, they cannot win elections if they do. That is the result of having been lied to for 40 years and it is a lie that the Tory party believes in so totally they are unlikely to ever change its minds.
Now we are living with the consequences and things are so bad the IFS has to put out research saying “Spending as much as other countries but taxing less is unlikely to be sustainable”.
Economics, trade and Brexit, not necessarily in that order but the dog always comes first.
By Jonty Bloom Media
Yes; as Tax Research showed (June 2021) the Tories have always borrowed more and repaid less than Labour because their political offer is low tax but they can't get re-elected with the commensurate cuts in public spending. Its the fantasy of the Tory right that they will deliver ultra low tax through huge cuts in state spending. But they simply won't accept that historical British success was due to military power and captive markets, not as they would have it, entrepreneurial individuals and free trade. The states that were late to the party tried the military route and failed so post WW2, the only route was an effective development policy run by the government (Germany, South Korea, Japan, China).
The problem for Labour will I suspect be that we will have to develop the expertise to deliver that and there will be mishaps and some wastage along the way to getting it right. Whether the public will tolerate that or just fall for the usual (picking winners doesn't work) critique offered by the Tories and the right wing press, will determine Britain's future for the next couple of decades.
“unlikely to be sustainable” - likely to lead to increased lawlessness and social breakdown, qualified tax-paying folk to flee to more enlightened places and an increasingly fast descent to third world status and beyond. That’s what 14 years of all this lying, chum-serving shit is leading to