Lack of Tory Balls
Oliver Letwin's taxing questions
Oliver Letwin wants to talk about tax. He wants tax cuts, and so do his party.
But the Tory's are running scared of wanting cuts in services - so they are in a no win situation. To get real cuts in Tax, services have to be cut. People know that. Otherwise it is just a choice between two spotty MBAs as who can streamline management better. Now obviously the Tories have judged that they can't win by promising cuts in services. But they won't win by being nu-nu-labour either.
So wouldn't it be worth trying the gambit of being a radical party that promised real tax cuts? - and pointing out that people are better judges of how to spend their own money than politicians. At the moment I can't work out why I should care whether Labour or Tory run the economy. And that the Tory's real problem.
Comments
Spot on re. thr spotty MBAs. Part of the problem is that ideology has become a dirty word so the choice is between personalities who claim to be great managers. But management is the civil service's job. The tories simply don't have the intelect to re-invent an ideology worthy of debate.
Posted by: Stephen Newton | October 5, 2004 10:04 AM
Services cut? Services such as Lesbian outreach? You could lose a million people off the Government payroll without noticing
Posted by: john | October 5, 2004 11:04 AM
The fact is, if they cut tax RATES they could still increase tax REVENUES. But nobody will believe that. Your last sentence-but-one is the most telling. I agree.
Posted by: Andrew Duffin | October 5, 2004 3:49 PM
Andrew is right, tax revenues will probably increase even if tax rates are cut.
People *may* believe this if the Tories actually made an effort to argue for it. But they haven't even tried. There's plenty of examples of this happening that economists know about which they could mention (eg. in the US in the Reagan years).
Posted by: Scott Campbell aka Blithering Bunny![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.anenglishmanscastle.com/nav-commenters.gif)
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October 6, 2004 11:27 AM
"You could lose a million people off the Government payroll without noticing"
I'd notice....
The improvement!
Posted by: South Park Kenny | October 6, 2004 9:33 PM