So many apparently well intentioned democratic politicians spend their lives trying to take our freedoms away from us. The latest bunch to assail us with their ill thought through schemes are the Liberal Democrats. There’s rarely any thing liberal in their policies, and often little that is truly democratic. They usually mistake more government for more democracy. They fail to see that the more government you have the less freedom you have. The more layers of government you have, the less good government you enjoy.
The Lib Dems have come up with two big ideas for their latest assault on the electorate. The first is universal elected regional government in the UK. We already have a Parish Council, a District Council, a County Council, a national Parliament and a European government in most places. That’s five layers of government making our lives a misery. What have we done to deserve another? Regional government would give us six layers of politicians and bureaucrats, six layers that can disagree with one another, pass the buck to and fro, send memos to each other, visit each other at our expense. Six layers that can fail to make decisions, or thwart each other as they play their political games. Far from creating government that can lead and electors who can bring it to account, it would guarantee an expensive and unholy mess.
Let’s suppose you seek a planning permission to build on your land, or you want to stop your neighbour building on his. You need to persuade the Parish to recommend your case. You need to ensure the District comes to the right decision. The District might be under orders from a County policy or a Regional plan. Your case might fall foul of national planning guidance issued by the Westminster government, or your land might lie in a specially designated area that comes under Euro control. None of this means the decision will be better or more democratic. It will be dearer, probably worse, and drive you mad trying to work out who does have the power to decide your fate. It is bad enough having all the government we already have, so let’s not volunteer for more of it at regional level. Indeed, let’s go further and abolish the unelected regional government we currently have. It’s a waste of time and a waste of our money.
The Lib Dems have had to confess that their passion for more government would cost us dear. They think the answer is for us to pay more income tax. Their regional assemblies would cost 3p on the standard rate of income tax – an increase of more than 13% in the typical income tax bill. They also want to replace the Council Tax with a local income tax. In my part of the Thames Valley that would cost another 7p in the pound on income tax, making the total increase for the standard rate payer a whopping 45%. So if you are paying £5,000 in income tax today, you would be paying £7,250 under Lib Dem plans.
They have not thought through how it would all be arranged. Would we pay local income tax based on where we work, as we do national income tax? That’s how the records are kept. My tax office is in South Wales because they look after the House of Commons – not because I live in Wokingham. If that was the administratively neat answer then businesses will soon be looking to locate their offices and factories in parts of the country where Councils are likely to levy lower tax. Jobs would transfer from high tax areas like the inner cities, to lower tax areas in the suburbs and shires. That would not be a good trend environmentally, nor would it iron out inequalities.
If alternatively the tax is to be levied where you live, there will be a massive cost and upheaval changing around the way national income tax is raised to bring it in line with residences rather than places of work. It will make the Revenue’s task more difficult, as they at the moment rely on most tax being paid under PAYE through the payroll, with direct contact between a single tax office and a single employer.
Do we really want our neighbours who work at the Council knowing how much we earn? What relationship would there be between the Council officials, the Regional government officials and the Inland Revenue? Would all three be involved in the assessment and calculation? Could we end up with differing interpretations of tax law from the three, or would Councils have to trust the Revenue to do it for them?
Local Income Tax would undoubtedly mean higher bills. In Wokingham, it would mean the average family paying £2400 a year more than a Band D Council Tax, based on what we know so far about the Lib Dem scheme for redistributing money around the country. It has been sold to people as a fairer tax, implying that most will be better off under it. Life would not work out like that. For many it would mean paying more, along with yet more forms to fill in. Which government has ever introduced a new tax saying it’s a way to soak you? And when did one last introduce a new tax that was fun to pay?
Lib Dems and Labour say they extend people’s freedom by doing more in the public sector on their behalf. The truth is very different. More government means more laws and controls, more taxes and more interference in our daily lives. It would be mad to buy another expensive layer of government when we have too much already, and a rip off to pay for all these supernumerary politicians and officials with more income tax. As a Liberal spokesman wisely said in a slip of the tongue in Prime Minister’s Questions recently, they have local income tax in Swindleland.
