Tory MP says HMRC ‘menacing’ letters show state is using ‘sinister’ psychology | News | Money Marketing


Updated.

A story on Money Marketing, reporting my comments to them on a letter that two of my constituents received from HMRC as a first demand (notwithstanding HMRC’s claim in the article that it is only sent as a third reminder):

A Conservative MP says recent letters from HM Revenue & Customs demanding people pay up or face having their possessions auctioned is an example of behavioural psychology now being employed by the Government.

And

He says: “We now have the state publicly backing and using scientific techniques of behavioural psychology to extract what it wants. It is sinister. You could dismiss it as a crazy conspiracy theory if it were not online with Cabinet Office written on it.”

Mindspace is available here.

It’s ironic: according to the Adam Smith Institute, present levels of taxation are counterproductive and lowering rates would raise revenues. Yet the state is resorting to higher rates and a bigger stick.

Great.

Reminds me of The Prisoner:

Number Two: I am definitely an optimist. That’s why it doesn’t matter “who” Number One is. It doesn’t matter which “side” runs the Village.
Number Six: It’s run by one side or the other.
Number Two: Oh certainly, but both sides are becoming identical. What in fact has been created is an international community–perfect blueprint for world order. When the sides facing each other suddenly realize that they’re looking into a mirror, they will see that “this” is the pattern for the future.
Number Six: The whole Earth as the Village?
Number Two: That is my hope. What’s yours?
Number Six: I’d like to be the first man on the moon.

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