The spat over tax between Labour and the Tories could be dismissed as boring were it not an issue that affects our pockets.
On this issue, the Tories are in a dilemma. Investment in public services, which inevitably means higher taxes, is popular. Yet the Tories are viscerally opposed to high taxes and a fat state. They have sought to reconcile the dilemma by making vague promises of tax cuts, retrenchment of bureaucracy and investment in ‘frontline services’.
Labour, for its part, has stealthily- and directly in the case of National Insurance- increased taxes and investment in public services. Unlike the Tories- whose instincts are against tax rises- Labour has not departed radically from its historic position as the party of tax and spend. Yet it has been reluctant to crown all this with a big idea, lest it look too much like old Labour.
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