Tax cuts please

The TaxPayers'Alliance and Isitfair organised an eye-catching joint campaign today, involving a crowd of placard-waving supporters handing thousands of council tax forms, accompanied by letters, to 10 Downing Street and the Treasury. For so many people to send their forms in shows the huge strength of feeling on Council Tax. Each one will have to be responded to individually.

Blair Gibbs, the TPA's Campaign Director, describes what happened:

"The TaxPayers’ Alliance, along with Isitfair, today handed in the petition from their ‘Brown Envelope Campaign’ at 11 Downing Street and the Treasury.  Thousands of taxpayers from across the country took part in the campaign in protest at ever increasing council tax, a tax that has increased by 91% under Labour, by sending a photocopy of their latest inflation-busting council tax bill along with a letter of protest to the TPA offices.  Sky News, press photographers and the BBC covered our march from our offices at 43 Old Queen Street to Downing Street and then on to the Treasury to deliver the bundles of brown envelopes.

Holding placards made by the TPA team, we received a good reception from cab drivers, bus passengers and even a Treasury security guard.  One socialist decided to have a pop, but seeing as he was the only one among hundreds we passed who was in favour of high taxes and keeping our pensioners in miserable poverty, we know the British people are on our side in the fight against high taxes.  And the fight goes on…"

ConservativeHome took part in the protest and made this short video of it:

Deputy Editor

Comments

[Jack Stone]

If the party leadership did as was done in the last election and the one before and started to commit themselves to reducing taxes, taxes would go up because Labour would once again be re-elected.
It is nonsense to suggest that the British people are as obsessed with tax cuts as the right-wing of the Conservative Party are. If they were Michael Howard would be Prime Minister now.

[Chris]

Jack,
No one is suggesting that we go into the next election promising rafts of tax cuts, because as they always have before Labour will scare the public into voting for them for fear of service cuts.

The public need to be educated about how tax cuts can increase revenue, due to renewed productivity. Until we find a way of better educating the public regarding economics we will forever be stuck with "tax cuts = worse public services".

Undoubtedly in time with proper reform we should reach a situation where we improve public services whilst reducing their cost.

[David Bullingdon]

We could promise to reduce the taxes we increased when were last in power.

[Apoplectic Tory]

David Bullingdon is talking rubbish. No Conservative Government has ever increased taxes.

[Matt Wright]

One way we can address this quandry is to start by simplifying business tax and reducing taxes on the low paid while reforming aspects of the benefit system. Poeple will then recognise we are moving sensibly and trying to improve productivity in order to generate the growth we need to improve public services,

Matt

[Leftie in disguise]

Well Margaret Thatcher introduced VAT and put up taxes in the middle of a recession...

[Derek]

We need to reduce benefits in order to be able to reduce taxes. We must keep on making the link. Too many false claims are being made. It is too easy to become state dependant. We need to be radical and develop policies on work-fare schemes.

"Britain isn't working" may be a good slogan again!

[Jake]

Best way to deliver tax cuts is to abolish the Barnett Rules and give fiscal and governmental independence for England .

This would be enormously popular , in England . The Scots can look after themselves - after all , they have all that oil revenue they go on about continuously

( that part of British oil revenues which is attribuable to Scotland , that is )

oh , and also , it is high time that the various component countries of the British state divvied up the British national debt according to their negotiated and fair share .

Scotland can use their attributable oil revenue to service their share of the national debt -
and thats another tax reduction for England !

[Denis Cooper]

Maybe, Jake, or maybe not - depending on whose analysis you believe.

[Yet Another Anon]

If they were Michael Howard would be Prime Minister now.
But he reacted so strongly when Howard Flight merely suggested that there might be extra efficency savings later that would only be known about when they could look at the books, Michael Howard reacted as if Howard Flight had suggested a massacre of the firstborn and drummed him out even as a parliamentary candidate. So whereas the Conservatives might have lost supporters who worried that Howard Flight's view might mean that the parties intention was to slash spending in office, equally they sent out a signal that they could not be relied upon to carry out tax cuts and so if anything put off the very people who looked forward to the prospect that it might turn up that there was more scope for efficency savings than had previously been conceived. Instead Michael Howard could have committed himself to maintaining services but saying that there might be efficency savings that the James review was unable to consider because of the limited access to the books, it's a perfectly credible position for an opposition party and John Smith as Shadow Chancellor said the same thing in 1992 with regard to the public finances, Labour were able to be portrayed as a party who would push up tax not because of this but rather because of the commitment to have a 50p top rate of Income Tax and because of other tax commitments.

[Yet Another Anon]

Well Margaret Thatcher introduced VAT and put up taxes in the middle of a recession
Wrong about the first bit, she was Education Secretary in the Heath government at the time that VAT replaced Sales Tax, in fact I think that the Chancellor of the Exchequer was actually McCloud at the time.

In 1979 the Conservatives pledged not to increase the 8% rate of VAT, John Biffen who was Chief Secretary to the Treasury after the 1979 General Election managed to persuade her that she had to choose between breaking the commitment not to increase VAT and otherwise either increasing direct taxation or not reducing the PSBR, and she felt that raising the Standard Rate of VAT from 8% to 15% was the least worst breach of manifesto commitments out of these.

[William MacDougall]

I agree with those who say it would be irresponsible, and a vote loser, to promise tax cuts immediately and in every year. But I think we could say that over the lifetime of a Parliament we would find savings and therefore by the time of the next election there would be lower taxes. And I think that could be a vote winner.

[Robert Simpson]

William, we have said that - Cameron stated that as long as the state of the public finances is good enough (which seems like a very sensible caveat) then we will have a lower-tax economy by the end of the next parliament.

Many people seem to be labouring under the bizarre impression that Cameron is a tax-raiser, just because he's not promising up-front tax cuts. he does want lower taxes, he just wants to be seen as responsible and trustworthy when it comes to the government's financial situation.

[TomTOm]

David Bullingdon is talking rubbish. No Conservative Government has ever increased taxes.

Posted by: Apoplectic Tory | June 15, 2007 at 16:42

Who put VAT on energy ?

Who introduced the Fuel Duty Escalator ?

Who introduced VAT ?

Who increased CGT to 40% and levied it in addition to IHT on estates ?

Who raised VAT from 15% to 17.5% Mr Major ?

It was Austen Chamberlain who introduced Corporate Profits Tax; Philip Snowden who abolished it in 1924; and Winston Churchill who restored it.