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It’s ‘Make Your Mind Up’ time

There are times (rare, it must be said) when I feel a pang of sympathy for our politicians.

Well, no, perhaps ‘sympathy’ is too strong a word. Let’s just say that I do occasionally recognise the thorniness of the predicaments in which they find themselves. Such as this one:

“We have quite a lot of evidence that illustrates that the council tax is very near the limit of acceptability in a number of areas,” said Mr Raynsford. “The increases in the last two or three years have really taxed the patience of a lot of people. They have been very substantial increases and we have to look at options for change including the possibility of finding other sources of revenue.”

Mr Raynsford’s remarks are evidence of Government concern that soaring council tax could severely damage Labour’s popularity in the run-up to the next general election.

The increases have led to threats of civil disobedience by pensioners in Devon who say they cannot afford the rises on their fixed incomes and are refusing to pay.

So what’s the problem? Just lower the taxes, right? Ah, well if only it was as easy as that. See the politicians realise that onerous taxes are making them unpopular but the only way to reduce that burden is to slash public spending and that will make them equally (if not more) unpopular. What’s a government minister to do?

Truly this is almost a picture perfect snapshot of a schitzoid nation. The common folk are always grumbling menacingly about the taxes they are forced to pay but at the same time they are not prepared to entertain even a suggestion of a reduction in the size of government (national or local) nor any diminution in the level of state largesse which they demand with an unquenchable vigour.

Oft-times this infected body politic breaks out in pustules that send the political classes scurrying around to find a less tender part of the body onto which to shift the burden. I suppose that method of treatment has a limited shelf-life.

It is slightly worrying that even after the Thatcher years there still seems to be no clear understanding that state activism comes at a high price. The British people appear to want low taxes and big government without appreciating that they cannot possibly have both. Until such time that sufficient numbers of them have settled on which one they want, these techtonic plates of expectation are going to continue grinding against each other, leading to frequent tremors and occasional quakes.

[Note to non-UK readers: ‘Council taxes’ are property-based taxes collected and spent at local level.]

6 comments to It’s ‘Make Your Mind Up’ time

  • “It is slightly worrying that even after the Thatcher years there still seems to be no clear understanding that state activism comes at a high price. The British people appear to want low taxes and big government without appreciating that they cannot possibly have both.”

    David:

    Is it not the case that large numbers of the British electorate want big government with low taxes for themselves but huge taxes for the “rich” – i.e. anyone else who is better off than the voter in question?

  • Rob Read

    Most people I know know that most of the tax take has been wasted under this government.

    The problem as David says is that stupid people see democracy as a way to get rich at others expense. They don’t realise any tax makes the country poorer, and thus they are worse off.

    I think some do relise that tax makes everyone poorer, but as long as it hurts the succesful they are happy, these are mostly to be found in the shirking classes.

  • G Cooper

    Well said, Mr. Carr!

    Sadly, even during the reign of the blessed St. Margaret, the message about these two mutually contradictory conditions (low taxation and big government) was far from preached aloud.

    Since her political assassination, with the subsequent demonisation of both her and the economic ideas she espoused, it seems to have become second only on the list of things not to say at a polite dinner party (the first being any comment about immigration not sanctioned by the Guardian).

    Thus the Tories are held trapped like rabbits in the headlights, too scared, as you say, to make any statements to which Mad Polly or some intellectual dwarf from Newsnight might take exception. Oh dear, am I allowed to use the word ‘dwarf’?

    It looks as if the British people will have to learn this lesson the hard way – probably when the whole bloody tower comes crashing down around our ears because it cannot support itself. Heaven knows, there seems little chance of any politician shoring it up with a bit of common sense before we reach that point.

    The infantilism that makes people cling to big government like a child to its mother’s skirts will never be outgrown by people too stupid to realise there is no endless supply of magic money.

    And that, of course, is the root of the democratic conundrum. People are just too damned stupid to govern themselves, so the best we can do is allow as little government as possible.

  • David

    “Is it not the case that large numbers of the British electorate want big government with low taxes for themselves but huge taxes for the “rich” – i.e. anyone else who is better off than the voter in question?”

    It most certainly is the case. Higher taxes are always a vote-winner provided somebody else has to bear them.

  • Johnathan

    We Britons, as indeed like most folk, suffer from the age-old desire to escape from scarcity and have our cake and eat it. T’was ever thus.

    Indeed, much of the hatred directed at Margaret Thatcher, Nigel Lawson et al is that, for a brief glorious episode, they told the British public to get a grip on reality.

    No wonder she had to go.

  • Cobden Bright

    Frederic Bastiat had this all figured out 150 years ago. The moment you allow any redistributive taxation, democratic government starts to become a matter of politicians buying votes by promising to distribute the maximum amount of tax revenues to their supporters. The winning party is that which can buy the largest proportion of the electorate without getting everyone else to vote for its nearest rival. Thus, spend as much as possible on your supporters, and tax the opposition’s supporters to death.

    Thus all the energies of government are spent on devising the optimal vote buying strategy,. Qualities such as wisdom, justice, and prosperity are only of importance in terms of how many votes can be bought with them before the next election. Hence long-term planning is completely irrational for all politicians, and unwise but populist policies are the most sensible option.

    This is why the unelected House of Lords has frequently governed in a more principled and sensible fashion than the Commons.

    There is no solution to this state of affairs except to ban wealth redistribution via taxation.