Realistic Tax Cuts

This last week has seen the headlines that the Liberal Democrats will at the next election run a campaign endorsing the cutting of taxes. Many of the political commentators have further taken pleasure in emphasising that the local activists will not like or support that view.
By The Newsroom
Published 23rd Jul 2008, 11:16 BST
Updated 7th Jun 2018, 20:12 BST

Well, as ever the devil is in the detail.

It is true that local activists here in Bexhill and Battle are opposed to tax cuts for tax cutting sake. A straight forward cut in taxes would of course simply equate to less money in the system and therefore less money to be spent on essential services. The message that we will campaign on, is that taxes will be reduced for those who are less able to pay them, together with an increment in the taxes on those who are more able to pay and also those who cause the most pollution.

Lord Bradshaw at our recent meeting voiced the view that the present Labour government had tried hard and spent a great deal of money in an attempt to "put things right" but had not always been successful.

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This is in many ways due to the prevalence of selfishness which characterises our society and a general failure to recognise that any tax reduction inevitably means an increase elsewhere if any government is to maintain its level of income and expenditure.

And so in Bexhill and Battle where we have one of the highest proportions of elderly residents and 50% of the area is rural we will continue to campaign, among other things, for the abolition of council tax to be replaced by a local tax based simply on the ability to pay and for the owners of the most polluting vehicles to pay a higher level of vehicle excise duty with an allowance for use in rural areas.

Related topics:BexhillLiberal DemocratsBattleLabour