« Manipulating memories | Main | Shameless self-promotion »

April 05, 2007

Comments

dearieme

Chaps like thee and me might agree, grandly, that our countrymen are infantilized, but what's to be done about it?

Mark Wadsworth

I dunno, while I admire a good bit of spin (I am a chartered tax advisor), might there not be an electoral advantage for a party that is COMPLETELY HONEST?

The problem is that first of all they would have to de-infantilise the debate by explaining what is really going on in simple terms.

Taking a recent example, the excuse given for tax relief for pensions contributions is that "it is better to encourage people to save so that they do not have to rely on means tested benefits in retirement".

Simple maths tells us that scrapping basic state pension and pensions credit and replacing it with a non-means tested, non-taxable and non-contributory Citizen's Pension of £114 for everybody over 65 would cost £3bn.

Compare that with the various tax reliefs for pensions contributions, which cost over £40bn.

The comments to this entry are closed.

blogs I like

Blog powered by Typepad