The unfortunate fact is that the country has been living beyond its means for a very long time.
Everyone wants more money spent on the NHS, on education, on defence, but no one wants to pay more tax.
We want Scandinavian public services and American tax rates.
The UK economy has been in relative decline for a long time.
In the early 1980s a pound sterling was worth 2.40 UD$. Today it stands at half that, a reflection of our economic performance over that period.
Without that vibrant economy there will not be the tax revenues to fund the world class public services people want.
There are no quick fixes. Slashing taxes will not help, nor some ill defined “Green Revolution”.
It took us two generations to dig this hole, it will take just as long to climb out of it.
No politician wants to tell you that because they want you to vote for them, so they offer plausible sounding quick fixes, such as windfall taxes and abolishing non-dom status, as if this were any solution to structural problems.
Given the mess we find ourselves in, the least we can do is to try to find an efficient and just way of funding local government.
Council tax is neither of those things. Here on the IW we have many older residents, living in relatively nice homes which represent their life’s work.
They have an asset but often little capital and a low, fixed income yet they are asked to come up with £200 every month to cover council tax.
Much fairer would be a local income tax and a local sales tax, which would supplement a resident’s tax levied at a much lower rate than at present.
