gilsey wrote:TheGrimSqueaker wrote:gilsey wrote:
I've read it. I find it too depressing for words. I don't want to hear Ed rule out income tax rises, and say he'll consider regional benefit caps.
He stated, categorically, that the 50p rate would be reinstated, how is that ruling out an income tax rise? Is Sparow editorialising again?
Beg your pardon, I was taking the 50p rate for granted.
It was this, I should make it clear that in no way do I approve of any specific proposal put forward by that tosser Field.
Q: Frank Field last week suggested taking the NHS out of politics and putting up national insurance to pay for improving it. Do you support that?
Miliband says that would be a tax rise for ordinary people. He does not support that.
In view of the ConDems erosion of the tax base by increasing the personal allowance, there's a very good economic case for 1p on the basic rate and 2p on the higher rate. IMO.
Field didn't say an extra penny on income tax but talked about a rise in NI. I am rather dubious about putting up NI.
I think that it is a given Labour will raise more tax than the Tories, but if you remember 92 there is no way they are going to say that.
There are also hard questions to be asked as to how you raise tax. I am increasingly convinced that the old mantra that Income Tax is fairest is no longer true.
Typically I pay more than the median wage in tax every year, yet I work with people earning double my salary and paying a fraction of my tax. Now I have no issue with contractors being able to offset certain things against tax, but I think scams where they create a business and pay a dividend needs to stop. You might be shocked at just how much tax these sorts of changes will raise.
There is an underlying assumption in Labours plans that middle class tax evasion will end, and that the elite will be hammered by taxing their assets (they don't earn money). You don't announce these sorts of plans up front.
In this environment Ed is clearly right to rule out something as simplistic as raising NI or income tax. I also think the line on the benefits cap is an electoral necessity. If you combine rules on rent control and low cost public housing with a regional reduction it is likely to result in zero impact nationally and will improve the situation in London.
One area where Labour should step up to the plate is disability, the sums of money are not great and promising to fix the system in favour of the claimants would be a good moral line to draw. Hard for the Tories to launch an attack on labour as well.
Release the Guardvarks.
