Tag Archives: michael gladwell

The VAT rise: a refresher course for Labour

Today’s increase in VAT from 17.5% to 20% — announced in the Coalition’s emergency budget last year — has triggered a fresh burst of opportunism criticism from Labour. The “wrong tax at the wrong time” claims their leader Ed Miliband.

How Labour’s last Chancellor backed a VAT rise

I suspect there’s a Labour MP we won’t be hearing from today, though: Alistair Darling*, Chancellor until the party’s defeat in May. As Mark Pack noted here last July, Mr Darling was a strong advocate of increasing the rate of VAT in order to tackle the UK’s massive deficit, with The …

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  • Judy Abel
    @Hywel fair point although second class letters are so slow that I would prefer the French model!...
  • Judy Abel
    @Ynys I stand corrected but at least I got the right playwright and the right play!...
  • Judy Abel
    @Simon yes we should either subsidise the essential services we value and pay for them through progressive taxation or not privatise businesses that then extrac...
  • Judy Abel
    @Peter I agree the media sets the tone in a lot of cases! Look at the disproprtionate number of times Farage appeared on Question Time. Our media is right leani...
  • Hywel
    "La Poste in France delivers six days a week and a normal stamp for a letter delivered within three days costs £1.30." GIven that second class post in the U...