Voter views on which party they trust on the tax and spending argument

Political Betting a href="http://politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2009/06/17/is-labour-losing-the-tax-and-spend-argument/" has an article up /a what voters have said about which party they trust more on tax and spending issues. The results are grim reading for Labour, as it seems voters favour the Tories over them on this question by 37% to 16%.br /br /In a situation of low growth and a large budget deficit, both tax rises and spending cuts will be needed in the medium-term to get the public finances back on an even keel. Labour has not said this to the electorate. The Tories have talked, vaguely, of the need for spending cuts, thus somehow tapping into a public mood among many people that austerity is inevitable. However, of course, the spending cuts needed to balance the budget without tax rises [and, even more so, if there are to be tax cuts] will be very large. I don't think the electorate has realised that yet.br /br /As my friend a href="http://duncanseconomicblog.wordpress.com/" Duncan has argued on a number of occassions /a Labour can possibly win back credibility on the issue if it span style="font-style: italic;"does/span mention the need for tax rises and point out that the choice is between the rich paying a bigger share of the costs needed to reduce the deficit and the poor paying a bigger share. This argument for social justice will at least inspire a greater deal of enthusiasm among the 'core vote' than vague pronoucments about the post-2011 budget settlements. A risky strategy, but it seems to me the only one that could work. Even if it fails, it will at least shape public discourse and the public mood and people will realise that tax rises are an option and that a just form of austerity does not mean cutting back services while also cutting inheritance tax!div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/38622711-4678812123985214080?l=vinospoliticalblog.blogspot.com'//div

technorati tags:
political news | news | world news
More at: News 2 Cromley