Osborne's abandoned the pasty tax.<\/p>\n
And the caravan tax.<\/p>\n
It's a good question whether or not he should have done; the pasty tax was a fix for an anomaly exploited by bigger businesses alone whilst the caravan tax was a charge on holiday\u00a0accommodation. Should it have been VAT free? Neither question is in the big scheme of things that important except for what they represented.<\/p>\n
Go back to the March budget: this was a fiscally neutral budget designed solely for political purpose. That was all it was.<\/p>\n
Despite that it's very clear Osborne got the tax wrong: on these detailed points he\u00a0called\u00a0it wrong and is\u00a0having\u00a0to\u00a0put\u00a0it right.<\/p>\n
But he also got the economics wrong: he remained committed to austerity and that's a disaster.<\/p>\n
Worse still, he got the politics wrong. He cut tax for the wealthy but not everyone else. He reduced tax for large\u00a0companies\u00a0but not small ones. He supported tax evasion through the Swiss tax deal. He\u00a0encouraged\u00a0large companies to take their financing operations to tax havens and in the\u00a0process\u00a0harmed\u00a0developing\u00a0countries. In other words, he did all he could to increase tax\u00a0avoidance\u00a0and\u00a0evasion\u00a0whilst increasing the\u00a0wealth\u00a0gap.<\/p>\n
What he actually needed to do were three things on tax.<\/p>\n
First he had to make sure those with wealth and excess savings - rich individuals and large companies in other words - were taxed to ensure that the cash they hold is\u00a0distributed\u00a0into the economy.<\/p>\n
Second he had to close the tax gap to tackle the deficit - and in the process create a level playing field for honest business that would encourage\u00a0investment\u00a0in people and infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Last he had to stimulate the economy, by VAT\u00a0cuts, NI cuts and more.<\/p>\n
And he did none of those things.<\/p>\n
William Keegan is somewhat older than me and reckons Osborne the worst Chancellor he's ever see. I recall Chancellor's back to Anthony Barber. I agree with Bill Keegan.<\/p>\n
And we're all paying the price\u00a0for his incompetence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"