There was some interesting polling published yesterday by the Onward think tank. One of the questions was:
“Please indicate which of the statements below best reflects your views?
The Government should allow people to keep as much of their own money as possible, and make taxes lower.
The Government should keep taxes at current level to ensure public services are funded and the debt burden doesn’t get too high.”
The result was that 36 per cent of all voters would prefer to cut taxes and 38 per cent would prefer to keep them as they are. Onward celebrated this rather slim margin as a repudiation of the tax cutters (aka “free market ideologues”, “libertarian fanatics”, etc.) But it’s worth noting that “keep taxes at current level” does not constitute an endorsement for tax increases.
Furthermore, the main problem with this polling is that it equated public spending with public services. Let’s see how Onward would get on polling people on the quite astonishing £272 billion spent annually on Quangos.
Many of us (most of all those working for the public sector) will have encountered considerable evidence of wasteful spending and thus conclude that spending could be reduced quite significantly while still “ensuring public services are funded.”
This false premise that all spending is taken up in necessary and worthy endeavours is familiar in local government. Earlier this year Lord Frost tweeted:
“Completing a survey on budget priorities from Labour-run Greenwich Council… … I find my only choices are cut services or increase tax/other revenue. How about becoming more efficient, cutting admin costs, or getting rid of non-priorities like the free newspaper?”
The choice was presented as “increase the Council Tax” or “make cuts to services.”
I’m afraid Conservative councils have also sometimes indulged in these loaded “consultations.”
Yet while they might try to comfort themselves from the results they produce – that Council Tax increases have popular approval – we know that they don’t really believe their own propaganda. That is because routinely we find Council Tax increases are imposed up to the maximum limit beyond which a referendum would be required – but no higher.
There would be no great difficulty in holding a referendum – often the Polling Stations are set up anyway on the first Thursday in May for some election or other. Yet year after year, in hundreds of local authorities, we don’t see them.
Surrey County Council threatened to hold one for a 15 per cent rise in 2015 but then decided against it. The only time it has been tested was when Olly Martins, then the Labour Police and Crime Commissioner in Bedfordshire, sought approval for a 15.8 per cent increase in the Council Tax precept. The result was 91,086 voters (30.5 per cent) supported the proposal, whilst 207,551 (69.5 per cent) opposed it. Good for him having the courage of his convictions. But he got completely trounced. You can see why others prefer to rely on sanctimonious but risible “consultations”.
You will have spotted that the Big State crowd are pretty chipper at present. They argue that the downfall of Liz Truss was brought about by repudiation of the “extreme” libertarianism of the Mini Budget. Absurd, of course, given that the main item was £100 billion of extra public spending due to the state paying a huge chunk of our energy bills this winter. But that narrative was repeated often enough to be accepted.
Very well. Let us put it to the test. Council Tax bills at Band D are now over £2,000 in much of the country. What if there was a mechanism to hold a referendum to reduce them, provided a certain number of signatures could be obtained?
In Oxford it’s £2,225. In Preston £2,171. In Pendle £2,211. In Reading £2,145. In Nottingham £2,294. In Rutland £2,300. In Stockport £2,142. In Walsall £2,183. In Liverpool £2,195. Do they feel they are getting the most wonderful bargain? If so then what do Onward and the other high-spending enthusiasts have to fear by allowing them to give their verdict.
Our new Prime Minister was born in 1980. So we could hardly expect him to remember the Proposition 13 vote in 1978. It brought in dramatic tax cuts in California and a great boost in economic growth. But while he was living in the Golden State someone may have mentioned it to him. Also how, in more recent years, tax hikes have turned the gold to lead as the successful have sought exile in Texas or Florida.
Party politics is fundamental to our local democracy. But it is not enough. We should learn from the Americans how to invigorate the process.