How to raise taxes labour style

[Dom Tuk]

Labour wants money and loads of it. So here is a tactic...say we have to save the world and introduce blatantly useless green taxes (even if we all stopped using cars tomorrow for an entire year it would make no difference to world climate if no other country followed our example). Another tactic...get the health secretary to say we need to raise tax on alcohol to curb hooliganism. Who introduced a 24 hr drinking culture in this country. This scaremongering over climate change also neatly fits in with Blairs policy (undebated) to introduce more nuclear reactors to the UK. Telll you what, lets vote them in next time yeah.

[matt66]

here is how they also do it as reported in todays telegraph

.........Sir Nicholas's real role, they say, was to provide the justification for the Chancellor to ram through a raft of unpopular "green" taxes.

It is one of Mr Brown's favourite tactics. In recent years, he has used a report by Sir Derek Wanless, the former NatWest chief executive, to endorse his decision to carry on funding the NHS out of taxes.

A report by Kate Barker, a member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee, provided similar cover for Labour's unpopular house-building plans in the South East, while Sir Peter Gershon, the former industrialist turned mandarin, produced the justification for a cull of civil servants.

Sir Nicholas certainly offered Mr Brown an unimpeachable record, including a spell on the Government's Commission for Africa last year............

and also read this in the same paper

Gordon Brown's claim to be leading the global battle against climate change were undermined last night by the disclosure that so-called green taxes have actually slumped while he has been Chancellor.

Official figures also show that ordinary families have borne the brunt of environmental taxes and households are paying almost four times more than businesses for every ounce of pollution they create.

Treachery extends not only to foreign states...they will just as esily shaft their own.

[nedflanders]

global warming............file in the same category as:

millenium bug
armageddon
WWIII
Doomsday
Bird Flu
S.A.R.S
etc etc.

[Le Chat]

I have been reading that this govt also wish to replace council tax with a levy that is 0.78 percent of the value of your home. I have calculated that instead of the �1500 we now pay per year, this would treble under the new calculation.
The problem is, we aren't earning anymore than we were 5 years ago but our house has trebled in value. The government and various others have let this happen and now wish to penalise us for it.
I really hope this does not happen as we have decided that we may have to consider relocating to another country.

[matt66]

Le chat

relocate to another country...thats exactly what they want you to do so that they can then have an empty land that they could fill with immigrants. Lonnie your warnings have come true.

[jake-the-peg]

Rather confused that Telegraph article - on one hand they call green taxes "unpopular" and on the other lambast Gordon Brown for letting them slip from 9.3 to 7.7 percent of revenue.

I suppose you could always vote for the lot with the scribbled tree logo.

I'm sure they'll scrap all those "unpopular green taxes"

[NJOK]

I love this site. Hilarious.

[Dom Tuk]

Jake the telegraph is referring to the Tory accusation that Brown only climbed the green (i love this earth) bandwagon after his political future headbutter Cameron started on the green trail.

[NJOK]

Who cares why he started on the green trail, as long as he's on it?

You could make the same accusation about nearly every politician about almost any policy.

[jake-the-peg]

Would that be the Gordon Brown who introduced the Climate change Levy in 2001?

What was David Cameron doing then? Oh yes he'd just managed to persude the Witney Tory party to let him stand for parliament.

Bit of a weak claim!

Still as NJOK points out there is a political consensus now I guess at the next election you can have any colour you like as long as it's green