Labour tax manifesto

[Zigenare]

The Tory bounce after the pact with Nigel Farage seems to be slowly dissipating.

I would get familiar with the manifesto.

Whose?

[MarillionFan]

Bigger w ankers than Old Greg and NorthernLadUk at a gay Accountancy Meetup. All a load of fantasy

[darmstadt]

The intelligence of a ‘Conservative Political Communications and Social Media’ expert:

[Zigenare]

The intelligence of a ‘Conservative Political Communications and Social Media’ expert:

Same Mathematics teacher as Dianne Abbott by any chance?

[Whorty]

The intelligence of a ‘Conservative Political Communications and Social Media’ expert:

There will be people out there that believes that tripe.

[Cirrus]

I'm not interested in the Labour Manifesto but I admire its attempt (even if utterly in vain) to move the discussion to the single thing that is wrong with this country (as alluded to by #rogerfederer)

We don't pay enough tax.


We only pay about 35% tax. More civilised nations (think Belgium, Denmark) pay more like 45%. That's 30% more!!


All the bollox about "We'll give and extra £50 billion to the NHS". "Well in that case we'll give another £80billion" "We'll spend £100 billion on infrastructure" "Right - put us down for £200 billion" "We'll pump £120 billion into education... etc"

It's all bollocks because we don't have the money. The way you get money is i) inflation (sorry- not possible), ii) borrowing (sorry -we're up to our necks in debt) or iii) tax.

It won't happen straight away but after the abject failure of the Thatcher-Regan years, we've got to get back to paying more tax.

[malvolio]

I'm not interested in the Labour Manifesto but I admire its attempt (even if utterly in vain) to move the discussion to the single thing that is wrong with this country (as alluded to by #rogerfederer)

We don't pay enough tax.


We only pay about 35% tax. More civilised nations (think Belgium, Denmark) pay more like 45%. That's 30% more!!


All the bollox about "We'll give and extra £50 billion to the NHS". "Well in that case we'll give another £80billion" "We'll spend £100 billion on infrastructure" "Right - put us down for £200 billion" "We'll pump £120 billion into education... etc"

It's all bollocks because we don't have the money. The way you get money is i) inflation (sorry- not possible), ii) borrowing (sorry -we're up to our necks in debt) or iii) tax.

It won't happen straight away but after the abject failure of the Thatcher-Regan years, we've got to get back to paying more tax.

You really don't understand economics, do you?

For instance, practical experience (mainly by previous Labour governments, as it happens) have shown that putting up tax rates gives an initial jump but then reduces overall tax income as people, and more importantly, companies, work around it.

And by what measure was Thatcher an economic failure?

[Amanensia]

You really don't understand economics, do you?

Nobody really understands economics. Anyone who tells you they really do, just doesn't understand that they don't understand.

That goes double for economists.

[BlasterBates]

You really don't understand economics, do you?

For instance, practical experience (mainly by previous Labour governments, as it happens) have shown that putting up tax rates gives an initial jump but then reduces overall tax income as people, and more importantly, companies, work around it.

And by what measure was Thatcher an economic failure?

Other countries in Europe have a higher GDP and higher tax revenues with respect to GDP, Germany and Sweden for example. In these countries companies and individuals have obviously been unable to find a way around paying more tax.

[malvolio]

Other countries in Europe have a higher GDP and higher tax revenues with respect to GDP, Germany and Sweden for example. In these countries companies and individuals have obviously been unable to find a way around paying more tax.

But for many years both have had much more intensive social care provisions, different levels of home ownership (more rental than owned houses in Germany for instance), differing rates of VAT and other excise duties and whole host of other variants. Germany has a large manufacturing industrial base, Sweden has significant oil and gas income, You simply cannot take one country's economic model and apply it to another one.

Labour's manifesto touches on several things that do need attention. the problem is their basic, fundamental mechanism for raising the money they need simply doesn't work.