I'm a right-winger, and proud of it. I stand for small government, low taxes and a free market economy. This is not because it produces the best growth statistics or the best living conditions (although it helps), but because it offers the most freedom to succeed or fail to all individuals.
Having said that, I do not stand for a society where people are left to fend for themselves if they're not able to find employment, or they're disabled, or they're really struggling despite trying.
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It is completely understandable that many people presume that the Rally Against Debt is a movement of self-interested. "Cut the services, cut our taxes, fuck the poor". Fortunately, that's not what it's about at all.
I'm not saying nobody on the march holds those views, but if they do, I have yet to meet them. The shared views on the march are mostly a support for a government which does not spend more than it brings in via the tax system.
In my opinion, this is not an ideological position. A balanced budget, or a slight surplus in order to pay down the debt (assuming there is a debt), should be the norm in times of relative peace. The alternative is an ever-increasing debt, and ever-increasing debt interest.
Having said that, I do share the concerns of some people that the means being used to pay off the debt are regressive. A higher VAT (though this is a tax increase, not a cut, so it should make the pro-tax left happy) and cuts to disability benefits definitely don't sit right with me.
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I don't include student tuition fees in this. Buying things (and paying VAT) and being disabled are not life choices, they are circumstances which are forced upon us (the former on all, the latter on some) by nature. Being a student, furthering your own life chances and getting a degree is a choice which thankfully is available to all (assuming you can get accepted to a university) via the SLC programme, and despite the higher fees, degrees remain economically attractive to prospective students.
Now, one common retort the far-left like to use is "Well, why do you support removing the 50% tax rate" or "Why do you not support the Robin Hood (Tobin) Tax?" I have some great answers to both of these.
The 50% tax rate is commonly believed to be revenue-neutral or revenue-negative, and also to damage growth. Surely it's not worth continuing with an ideological & punitive tax which doesn't actually do anything to help the poorest.
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As for the Tobin tax (why do they call it a Robin Hood Tax? Robin Hood took from the tax man and gave back to the people...), we let Sweden try that one for us. It crashed bond trading by 85% and futures trading by 98% within a week. Options trading ended altogether. City AM did a good piece on it here. Needless to say, an economy which relies on finance for 11% of its tax intake shouldn't even be considering this idea.
So, if not by cutting services to the poorest even further, and not by raising taxes, where can we go? Well, I'd propose we start with the following:
- End drug prohibition, at a cost of approximately £4.7 billion per year in addition to the justice budget, excluding the knock-on effects of allowing drugs profits to fund the illegal gangs, murders of young people over turf wars and the UK illegal weapons trade. We could then bring the approx £5 billion a year drug industry into the regulated market and tax it to pay for the health effects.
- Leave the European Union and join the European Free Trade Association. The EU costs the taxpayer £14.6 billion per year excluding the bailouts, but this is a mere fraction of the cost when extra food costs, lost catch due to the common fisheries policy and costs for business compliance are totalled up. The contribution to the EFTA would be less than £300 million a year, and we would not be liable to the CFP, CAP or bailout funds.
- Suspend the foreign aid programme. If we pay the target of 0.7% of GDP, this would cost us around £8.8 billion a year. I know this isn't particularly popular, but unless we're proponents of world government, we accept that the first function of government is to get it right at home. In addition, a lot of foreign aid is going to countries with space programmes, those which harbour terrorists and ending up in the pockets of dictators. If far-left types wish to continue the foreign aid budget, allow them to donate their private funds to a foreign aid budget.
- Suspend the Climate Change Act which is going to mitigate 0.00048°C/year of warming for £18 billion a year. It's a completely ideological position to do this unilaterally instead of at UN level including the US and China, which contribute over 10x what we do, each, to world CO2.
- Bring our troops home from Libya, Iraq & Afghanistan, which will save us £5.5 billion per year (£1 billion on Libya (assuming no escalation beyond aerial bombardment) and £4.5 billion on Iraq & Afghanistan) and countless lives.
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Being conservative, these cuts would save us £51.3 billion a year, and would not hit the poorest and most vulnerable in society. I'm not saying there won't be job losses, any cut in public spending will result in job losses, but these cuts are what I believe to be reasonable and proportionate, and far more progressive than what we're doing at the moment.
Of course, these cuts alone aren't enough, as they only represent about a third of the deficit, but ending the climate change act & leaving the EU would have positive knock-on effects on growth because businesses would be freed from regulations which currently keep them down (specifically, tariffs to trade with non-EU nations like the US and East Asia, our main export markets outside the EU).
Surely, left or right, you can think of more cuts which would protect the poorest and set our nation on the right course for sustainable and responsible finances for the long term.
Come join us at the Rally Against Debt, whatever your political affiliations. It's not a British Tea Party, it's not a Rich Vanity March, it's an open forum to discuss how to get this country moving in the right direction.
See you there.
