Name: Tax lock
Age: Brand new!
Appearance: Large, tough, forged from British steel.
What, literally? No, metaphorically. But still, it’s a Tory election pledge to introduce a new law that would make it illegal for them to break their own promises on tax.
What are those promises? “Between May 2015 and May 2020 there will be no increases in income tax rates, no increases in VAT – nor an extension of its scope, no increases in National Insurance – nor an increase in its ceiling.”
I see. So a Tory win guarantees that I won’t pay more tax? Heavens, no. They’d still be free to lower the threshold at which National Insurance is paid, or take tax relief away from childcare or pensions or something else, or raise the rate of inheritance tax, or stamp duty, or capital gains tax, or start taxing benefits, or reduce the VAT registration threshold …
All right, all right! But at least the tax lock would stop them breaking the promises they have made. Nah. It wouldn’t do that either. If they wanted to, they could just repeal the law.
So it’s not so much a lock, more like ... tax Velcro? Yes
And anyway, where does this leave the rest of their pledges? Is everything else the Tories promise a bit more, you know, flexible? That’ll be another “yes”. Although no party can really promise anything too strongly because of the chance they might have to ditch it later in coalition.
A moment’s silence, please, for Nick Clegg’s career … *silence*
Isn’t promising to lock yourself into things also a bit odd? Doesn’t it basically accept that no one trusts you, and imply that you don’t even trust yourself? I fear so. As one commentator put it when something similar was suggested in 2009, “Either the chancellor has lost confidence in himself to stick to his resolution, and is, so to speak, asking the police to help him, or he fears that everyone else has lost confidence in his ability to keep his word.”
Who said that? George Osborne.
D’oh! Indeed.
Do say: “Could you imagine if normal people started using legal instruments to try to prove they could be trusted?”
Don’t say: “You mean like getting married?”
