All of these statements are valid, in my view. Other studies have shown that there is a limit to the amount that an economy will stand in taxation: somewhere around 40%. Above this, incentives die, investment and efforts reduce, which frustrates any attempts to push taxes further. The result is a downward spiral.
Under this Labour government, this problem will result in a disastrously poorer financial position with borrowing at worrying levels. I suspect that some of the other discussion topics around immigration and spending on services (like the NHS, water services, etc.) will also contrive to produce a perfect storm of problems to solve when the next election comes around.
There also seems to be a real concern over the size of the Civil Service and its willingness to get incisively behind the motivations of any new centre-right Government, to deliver rapid change for the better. This can render promises made, before an election, very difficult to deliver and, combined with aggressive Main Stream Media, can rapidly lead to negative press and a public that only too quickly starts to lose faith in programmes. I’d be surprised if the national leadership is not thinking about this but I think it needs the strongest thinking possible on this subject so that a plan exists to deal with it when success happens and to set expectations, in the minds of the voters as they are making their choices.
Rachel Reeves’ Autumn Budget 2024 was n attack on employment, an attack on entrepreneurialism, and an attack on farming.
