On Radio 4 yesterday – discussing the morality of tax avoidance and defending the state

Posted on June 21 2012

I was on PM last evening.

You can listen here - start at 51 minutes in.

My opponent's arguments were quite extraordinary. He appears to think we should have a poll tax.

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6 Responses

  1. Ivan Horrocks says:
    June 21 2012 at 9:18 am

    Just listened to the clip, Richard: a supporter of a poll tax and a promoter of inequality too (by definition from his argument). That wasn’t what it sounded from the intro as if the Cobden Centre was set up to promote. But as we all know by now, right leaning think tanks are seldom honest about their real intentions.

  2. Iain Paterson says:
    June 21 2012 at 10:16 am

    Your opponent was pursuing a tactic straight out of the American right wing playbook. Get a seemingly ludicrous view out through respectable media in order that in time people become used to hearing it and see it as a normal mainstream view. Once that is achieved you can go ahead and try to get such a policy implemented.

    In common again with the American right these people really want to see how far they can go and will simply keep going until they reach that point.

    Moreover on top of that, much as this individual dislikes tax, I believe that his greater objection is to what it pays for. It is quite clear that he does not want social services or any kind of solidaristic economy. Such a society goes entirely against the sort of world they want to see.

  3. John says:
    June 21 2012 at 10:23 am

    I think you nettled him. The argument is basically: ”it is natural to be greedy and anybody who actually believes in all of us paying fair taxes for the collective good is a sinister weirdo”.

    It is the lament of the greedy and the mean.

  4. Carol Wilcox says:
    June 21 2012 at 6:09 pm

    So, Jimmy Carr has done the right thing and apologised – but, let’s face it, what else could he have done? An entertainer like him relies on audience approval. This, of course does not apply to the Philip Green’s of this world who just raise two fingers to the rest of us.

    • David Carr says:
      June 22 2012 at 9:14 am

      I don’t think Jimmy Carr really means his “apology”. So I don’t accept it.