Fiscal drag queen

‘Read my lips: no new taxes’ was the famously undone phrase used by George Bush senior when he was running for the U.S. presidency in 1988. It’s not quite the same but Starmer’s statement in his grand opening speech of the election yesterday was that he wouldn’t raise income tax. He wants to keep taxes low he says, implicitly adding to the stigma taxation must endure. Coupled with Rachel Reeves’ commitment to her blessed fiscal ‘rules’ it is hard to see what is going to change. Both Tories and Labour are saying they will reel in zillions from closing down tax avoidance/evasion schemes. Such promises are made to cover the gaping holes in economic plans. If there was so much money to be made from such endeavours why haven’t they already produced the dosh? It seems every government or party in waiting wants to advertise how crap they are at collecting taxes.
 
But hey! Reeves has said she doesn’t want to see a return to the five years of austerity we suffered. Which five years was that? Did it stop in 2015? Labour is making a rod for its own back, not merely in a strict fiscal sense but electorally too. Unless it completely breaks with precious British traditions and dramatically boosts productivity and efficiency in every sphere, we will witness a backlash as the gains of growth fail to materialise. It might help for starters if we were to repatriate the ownership of a number of essential ingredients of the economy, such as water and energy. It’s curious that Starmer can today promise not to put up income taxes, presumably for the duration of a full parliament, but when it comes to many desperately needed spending pledges these cannot be made until we’ve ‘seen the books.’ In the land of economics, the one handed economist is blind (I’ll figure out what that means later but I thought it sounded apposite).