The Guardian has just published this:
Give it a read over there.
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Hardly an ‘opinion’ piece; I’d call it factual reporting. Great to see, though!
Here is the link: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/10/public-spending-labour-90bn
You don’t seem to have included a link to the article. It is here:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/apr/10/public-spending-labour-90bn
Added now…too much haste
Excellent. I also seem to see a little tax finessing/balancing of stick and carrot in the piece. I would give a little back by raising basic income tax allowance for those who are suffering most; and that can be ‘finessed’ to limit the consequent upside for the upper deciles. All stick is a bad idea, and there has to be something for people at the bottom, quickly. something they see in their own hand.
Even the way the rise in pensions has been handled by neoliberal press is to give the impression that people are 8.3% better off, when inflation is nearer 3%; the unstated, insidious idea they are 5% better off. They aren’t. The pension rise is paid as a lag. This is merely an attempt to offset prices that rose at 11%. Inflation at 3% does not mean prices are falling. already pensioners are behind the curve. Politics has become simply a scam; a three card trick; the press move on before anyone notices.
There seems to be a lot of support in the comments on the article and a lot of sensible diacussion.
I noticed…
And I do not usually read the comments
A lot of support here for your view.
Well done.
Now will Labour listen?
That is the question…
Well done, you have put a lot of work into this and it needs wider circulation. And it is well crafted, it shows that these are arguments you have rehearsed many times on this blog.
If I may be permitted one small criticism, the suggestion of an investment surcharge will surely raise upset given there is no justification provided. If you had simply said “to make up for the fact NI isn’t payable on these sources of income” it would have immediately made sense to those new to your proposals.
They took the justification out to meet the word count….
The best laid schemes of mice and men …
Excellent work, Richard. How could any reasonable truly ‘Labour’ Party fail to take heed and, indeed, act on your suggestions. It is all the more impressive – and should be effective – because it puts big, fat real figures on a set of contentions, which no potential Chancellor who had serious intentions on creating a fairer society and repairing the currently hideously damaged one, could ignore. What in this can Starmer, and most particularly Reeves, fail to want to adopt?
You have set them a test – and by their response to this article, we will truly know them.
Good article in the Guardian and all sensible ideas. I have always wondered how much extra revenue would be brought in if income was taxed at similar levels to this in Norway and Finland (or even France). Any ideas on this?
Good question
I have not done the modelling because the interactions with the benefits system are very big
Congratulations Richard.
It will be widely discussed in the ‘Labour movement’ – whatever that is – and beyond. Reeves and Co will continue to try not to engage .
Once they are faced with the cold reality if and when they are in Govt – they will have no choice but to engage
Richard
Your Guardian article provided me the opportunity to think about your full report. It is amazing that you produced such a remarkable document in what appears to be a relatively short period of time. It would take me a lifetime!!!
I quite like the way you set up the document and did each recommendation.
Well done!
Thanks Joe
Appreciated
I will be candid – I had no idea of the scale of this when I started, but I am glad I did it even if it was knackering