Danny Finkelstein is in fine form in this morning's Times:
Next, there is the waning appeal of small-government rhetoric. In the 1970s, speeches about government being the problem not the solution resonated. Now this language is much less potent politically. Government remains often inefficient and too large, but winning support to change it is harder. Conservatives need to show that they can run government, providing services, not merely talking about shrinking them...
This is linked to another issue - tax cuts. Always an automatic crowd-pleaser in the past, it isn't working quite as reliably as it used to. John Howard, for instance, lost in Australia despite his promises. In Britain, Conservative pledges have had mixed results. Voters don't believe them.
I'm sure I've heard that line of thinking before somewhere - what I haven't heard suggested but welcome heartily is the idea that the Conservatives should embrace heavier taxes on fossil fuel consumption.
Labels: Politics
4 Comments:
I think he is just being a contrarian. Big government has waned and its not just a matter of tax levels its about delivery in the public sector.
He has it the wrong way roung ,I would have said this before the IHT taxpayers revolt, but not now. I think myself the danger is that the Conservative cavaliers will hair off into the unknown drunk with victory and get picked off by the Roundheads in there back entrenched positions .
Discipline and caution are the keys to Downing Street now
What 'IHT taxpayers revolt'? IHT is a perfect of example of the sort of thing the Tories need to ignore, not pander to more. It will be levied on c.6% of estates, all of whom are already relatively wealthy - it's a non-issue....
To believe that those who call for smaller government are all from the 'tax me less' brigade is overly simplistic. Some of us call for a smaller government, tiny in fact, because we believe that government is too often about coercion through violence; the forcing of the individual to do the bidding of the majority irrespective of his or her beliefs or desires, and as such, is intrinsically immoral. The belief that taxes are the theft of money to be spent irrespective of your wishes is only a small part of the picture.
In the main, I want to see reduced taxes because they are the food that feeds the beast, not because I want more money to spend on cakes.
Thanks for the clarification Harry but opposition to tax increases on those grounds is infinitely more worrying than those who simply want less government spending.
I have very little time for that sort of extreme libertarianism...
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