If ever there was a time for radical proposals by a governing party, this is it. Rather than the imitative, mealy-mouthed shuffling of dollops of money from one departmental scheme to another, in what will inevitably look like panic in the face of rising youth unemployment and disappointing growth figures, what we need is a display of real insight and nerve.
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We will have to choose, quite soon, between liberty and the “security” of a society in which government controls the levers of economic life.
via A daring idea to fix the economy: try doing less – Telegraph.
Radical simplification of taxation could increase yield and reduce bureuacratic cost of collection.
I favour merger of NI and IT with a personal allowance of £10k and a flat rate above that of 40%. Acheived over three years by reducing combined rates of 51% and 57.8% to 40% over, say 5 years.
(Income from savings and pensions to be taxed at 20% to reflect current arrangements)
Steve
Please get your Treasury colleagues to read this article and the recent Tullett Prebon strategy papers and the Project Armageddon report before the November statement. They have to be braver in their thinking. All the fiddly ‘initiatives’ that are being announced are very reminiscent of Gordon Brown’s ridiculous managment of the economy. We voted to stop this not get more of it.