Vince Cable is not a god! There. I've said it.I've often expressed my frustration with the media's unwillingness to hold him to account in the same way that they do with Darling and Osborne. Just because the Lib Dems can't form a government doesn't mean that they should be given an easy time, they may have a role in a hung parliament and people deserve to know what they really plan to do.
I was therefore pleased to see Jon Sopel finally grill Saint Vince properly on the Politics Show. Vince conceded that, not only did he make up the £389 figure in their VAT attack but that the Lib Dems wouldn't rule out a VAT bombshell of their own.
Here is the transcript from the exchange:
JON SOPEL: I mean let’s leave aside whether or whether not there is a black hole in the Tories' finances. Leave that to one side. You don’t know factually, that they are going to raise VAT. That is your conjecture.
VINCE CABLE: It is a conjecture and it’s a reasonable assumption and I wouldn’t claim anymore than that.
JON SOPEL: And that £389 is a rough figure plucked –
VINCE CABLE: It’s a ball park estimate of what it would require in order to fill that gap, and it seems a reasonable way of expressing that argument."
...
JON SOPEL: Would you rule out raising VAT?
VINCE CABLE: No, I don’t. It’s something –
JON SOPEL: So therefore your position is no different to them."
Thanks to ConHome for the transcript.
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2 comments:
BTW in some sense I agree that raising tax like VAT makes a lot of sense. It is a direct tax on consumption so in proportion to expenditure. Poor pay less as they will consume less. Also some basic goods (food/children clothes even domestic electricity/gas up to certain level) can be tax free.
Infact someone should seriously start thinking about only VAT as tax and remove/reduce all this income tax/capital gains tax/inheritance tax/NI etc etc. That will reduce the size of HMRC drastically as well and make tax really "not taxing". Also since there is no tax on income or capital gains, this will promote investments wealth creation as well as saving for future. It will also send a clear message - more you consume more you pay.
The idea that rich people pay more in VAT as they consume more is actually not true. My understanding is that the poorer someone is, the more of their income they have to spend (as opposed to save) on basics, so indirect taxation (such as VAT) is actually worse for poorer people than direct taxation (such as income tax).
That said, I think any incoming govt is going to have to tax the hell out of all of us, so the argument is slightly academic.
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