How to Avoid the VAT Hike

Khan on Miliband’s Lack of Experience - Pete Hoskin
CCHQ/Downing Street Spinners Reshuffle – Paul Waugh
Alan Johnson’s Savoy VAT Day Lunch – Daily Mail
Nudgers vs. Nannies - Reason
Good Riddance to the EMA – Game View
Westminster’s Movers and Shakers 2011 – Indy
In Praise of Tax Avoidance – Andrew Lilico
The Twelve Stories You Missed – ConservativeHome
Loyal Boles Calls For Merger – Speccie
Character, Institutions and the Left – Chris Dillow

Gerard O’Neill says…

“Irish people have their hearts on the left but their wallets on the right.”

Old and Sad Tricks From Labour

Let’s All Go To Monbiot’s

How to Avoid the VAT Hike

There are many ways the government could have avoided hiking VAT and stuck to their pre-election plans. They could have cut spending a further 2% rather than the mere 3.3% they are planning to shave off spending. The best solution to unfunded over-spending is to reduce spending, not raise taxes. The UK’s gross contribution to the EU budget exceeds the expected income from the VAT hike…

Both the LibDems and the Tories knew how bad the deficit was before the election and yet both said they had no plans to raise VAT, yet it was raised in the first budget. So what changed?