David Cameron loses his marbles

macaque_2

The rich must be taxed to help pay for the recovery Conservative leader David Cameron said as he pledged to lift the highest tax rate to 45p in the pound.

http://www.citywire.co.uk/personal/-/news/markets-companies-and-funds/content.aspx?ID=333754&re=4981&ea=174368

Gordon's solution to any problem is to raise taxes. That is why we are in a bigger mess than anyone else. What is David Cameron's solution to the current chaos? Put up taxes! He is starting to sound too much like Denis Healey for my comfort.

Microstar_2

Maybe we should tax the poor then? With punitive rates of purchase tax on toilet paper and wheelchairs.

amcluesent

"Call me Dave" Dave is signalling that anyone in the public sector can expect severe constraints on salary and budget. About time too!

The_White_Horse

sack 50% of public sector workers NOW.

then dock the remainders salaries by 40%.

they are a tumour that needs to be cut out.

at least 50% are non-job nonsense, five a day co-ordinators and inclusion officers. I even saw a Street football officer on 45k. sack him NOW!!!!!

JayScottGreenspan

Putting the top rate from 40% to 45% would raise about £6bn in extra tax revenue according to my rough calculations.

In other words: sod all.

maninthestreet

Sack all the 'Diverse Absurdity' related jobs - this should save a bit.

JasonLVC

As usual with the media and politics, I think this is a mis-quote.

Alistair Darling in the Budget last year (November 2008) announced a 45% tax band (and an increase in NIC) for those earning over £150k....but cunningly delayed the introduction of this tax banding until April 2011 on the basis an election must have taken place before that date.

Cameron is simply accepting the fact that with a near £80bn black hole in the countries budget, to reverse that tax band would be foolish on so many levels. If he dropped what is already in place and budgetted for it will look like he's favouring the rich.

And as JSG has posted, the increase will generate about £6b a year - consider that against the £13b the 2.5% VAT cut is costing this year and you can see that the whole thing is nothing to worry about (unless you earn over £150k of course!).

At least Cameron is man enough to accept that there WILL be tax rises and cuts in spending....Brown & Co are still in la-la land and Brown is being very short on facts as to how much his fiscal measures will cost us and little mention of public sector cuts or tax rises.

Degenerate

Is it just me, or are the Tories repeating the mistakes that Labour made before the 1992 election? You know, the one in the middle of a recession that Labour appeared to have in the bag, until they came out with insane proposals in a "shadow budget".

baby_boomer

This crisis means that everyone will have to pay higher taxes for decades.

It's not a bad way for Dave to start to educate people about this - since Gordon will seek to avoid the issue in the run up to a 2010 election and instead propose ever more state spending as the solution. [Recently rejected by the German Chancellor.]

We badly need a reality check.

If the Tories are proposing higher taxes on the rich, people will get the message that it's pretty dire out there. And be better prepared for the higher taxes we will all have to pay.

Well done Dave.

mitchaa

To be fair our income tax rates are low in comparison to other countries around the world.

I personally think the £100k + earners should be taxed at 50%

Sir_Humphrey

Degenerate wrote: »

Is it just me, or are the Tories repeating the mistakes that Labour made before the 1992 election? You know, the one in the middle of a recession that Labour appeared to have in the bag, until they came out with insane proposals in a "shadow budget".

I'd hardly call 1p on Income Tax 'insane'.

The deficit will not be cut unless taxes go up. You can only cut public spending so far until you get very nasty consequences. Just look at Stafford hospital when it was decided to cut £10m (not THAT much in the grand scheme of things) from their budget to meet their crazy targets...