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That NIESR report

Spending cuts are unlikely to be enough to restore the public finances and households ought instead to pay significantly more tax, according to the National Institute of Economic and Social Research. This could include a 7 percentage point increase in the basic rate of income tax to 27 per cent, pushing up the average household bill by £1,844 a year.

The only problem with this report is that this is what they always say.

Taxes should rise because there\’s no way that public spending can be cut. Each and every penny of the roughly £600 billion sprayed around each year is absolutely vital so soak the bastards more.

They\’re talking about raising £30 billion more with these taxes. You can identify £30 billion of spending cuts* in about 45 seconds: the only reason they\’re not being identified is because no one is really trying.

(* EU, regional development agencies, regional assemblies, Arts Council, all and every piece of business subsidy including the Business Department….)

6 thoughts on “That NIESR report”

  1. This is idiotarian. You can’t just not pay the money that goes to the EU – it would be illegal and we’d probably end up getting booted out. That’s what you want, for sure, but it’s just not credible to imply its a decision that can be made by a politician on a whim. It’s a bit like saying we can save £50bn simply by scrapping Trident and probably get another £50bn by selling the system to the Chinese – true, but idiotic.

  2. “Take out of service” then if you prefer. I think even the Royal Navy could work out a way to do that without rendering it useless.

  3. If you merely take it out of service, then you are not making the 50bn saving. My point was you seem to be double counting the 50 bn. You can’t both save 50 bn by not buying Trident and then another 50 bn by selling on the system that was never purchased.

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