Phillip Inman (economics correspondent for the Guardian and Observer) is getting in a right old tizzy:
Lobbyists behind the rightwing Tea Party group in the US will arrive in London today to spread their message of low taxes and small government at an event organised by the UK's controversial Taxpayers' Alliance.Oh, quelle horreur! ‘Low taxes and small government’..! Whoever heard of such a cockamamie notion?
And when did the TPA become ‘controversial’..?
Critics of the event said it established a clear link between British rightwing groups and aggressive American lobbyists who pursued low taxes, loose regulation and widespread privatisation of public services.How many times is this man going to write the word ‘right wing’ as if it were some sort of talisman to ward off evil?
The Taxpayers' Alliance aggressively promotes an anti-tax, anti-state, anti-Europe agenda and many of its leading figures have close links with the Tory party and the rightwing press.Let me try that out for size:
‘The TUC aggressively promotes a collective-bargaining agenda, and many of its leading figures have close links with the Labour party and the left-wing press.’
‘The ECHR aggressively promotes a human rights agenda and many of its leading figures have close links with campaigners and the left-wing press.’
Hmm…
Today's conference will be attended by Americans who have lobbied in the US to overturn Barack Obama's healthcare plan and maintain tax breaks for the rich. Several of the groups have close links to the billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, prominent tormentors of the Obama administration.But as Tim Worstall points out, this isn’t considered a bad thing when George Soros is doing it…
The Cato Institute, which promotes its views on Fox News and other rightwing media, is one of the Tea Party's main backers.Oh, noes! It’s that ‘right wing’ word again!
Prominent Tory supporters are also backing the conference. Stanley Kalms, the former chairman of Dixons, is a key sponsor of the event along with investment banker Howard Flight. Flight was a Tory MP and frontbench Treasury spokesman before David Cameron became leader, while Kalms was Tory treasurer and one of its main backers.Clearly, you can see Phil regards them as almost as bad as the right-wing low-tax small-government right-wingers…
So, just who does he think can save him from the march of the right-wi…
Ah:
Campaigner Richard Murphy, who wrote a report for the TUC showing how companies and wealthy individuals avoid billions of pounds of tax, said: "It's clear the Taxpayers' Alliance receives a huge amount of support from the US, where there is serious money behind the lobbying for low taxes.Good old Murph, still blurring the lines between tax evasion (illegal) and tax avoidance (legal) for his audience of economic illiterates…
The conference is billed as a debate among European thinktanks, but it is a barely disguised front for the most aggressive lobby tactics championed on the other side of the Atlantic."
Murphy said: "The Taxpayers' Alliance has done a fantastic job of presenting itself as a representative of the poor downtrodden taxpayer.I’m surprised there are any slots on the BBC left for the TPA; it seems as though Murphy himself is never off them!
"It regularly grabs slots on the BBC and other media to argue that taxpayers are hard done by. But the freedoms it wants is freedom from taxes for a tiny minority of wealthy people."
The TPA wants lower taxes for all taxpayers in the UK. One way to achieve this is to have a small state. A small public sector. However, with the NHS being the 4th largest employer on the planet (ridiculous for the number of patients treated per year) I doubt they will succeed.
ReplyDeleteThe writer of the article seems to think that everything is right wing if he doesn't agree with it.
"It regularly grabs slots on the BBC and other media to argue that taxpayers are hard done by. But the freedoms it wants is freedom from taxes for a tiny minority of wealthy people"I'd have said Richard Murphy knows a lot more about freedom from taxes just for wealthy people than the TPA do, the hypocritical prick.
ReplyDeleteRichard Murphy, as eloquently demonstrated by Tim Worstall recently used Tax Avoidance techniques himself when he ran his own consultancy.. e.g. Paying his wife a salary but the bulk of the company revenue as dividends..
ReplyDeleteTypically hypocritical leftie twat, "you pay the tax for a big state, I'll trouser mine thank you very much..."
I think you have hit on something there. A way to redress the uneven impartiality in reporting.
ReplyDeleteWould be good if everyone that blogged on unions always began with "Billy Hayes, leader of the Communications workers union and a £1 million a year minimum donation funder of the labour party, insists that Coalition plans are wrong.."
Murphy's Law, any pointless drivel that can be uttered will be, by him.
ReplyDeleteFirst class blogging, Julia.
ReplyDeleteI think Tim Worstall has exposed Mr Murphy for the hypocrite he is, yet I like you am amazed that he still gets airtime on the BBC...
ReplyDeleteActually, scratch that, this is the BBC, home leftist bias and drivel masquerading as opinion and news, Murphy fits in ever so well there for some reason or other.
I just googled Richard Murphy and I realise who he is: that utter nob, who says you can only comment on his blog if you agree that he's great and everything he says is genius.
ReplyDeleteI left a comment this lunchtime, but it seems to have disappeared. It went something like this:
ReplyDelete"widespread privatisation of public services"??
That's not small government, that's CORPORATIST. The problem is that the government is doing loads of pointless expensive stuff that it shouldn't be doing. Simply paying large corporations to do it just makes things more expensive.
e.g. ID-cards and databases. Shit idea. If you 'privatise' it, Timmy Taxpayer just ends up paying more for something that was pointless in the first place.
has anyone else thought that a rich man buying a new car, boat or an extension for his home, is keeping someone else in a job?
ReplyDeleteThe state of the NHS and the BMA is quite ridiculous for a civilised country when you think about it. When I so much as dare raise even the slightest anti-BMA sentiments to those in the health profession I get a massive scowl.
ReplyDeleteIt keeps the blood up and me sane. But why?
I like the TPA. I make no bones about it, mainly because they annoy people.
The funny thing about using "right-wing" is that the "right-wing" political parties in the UK are unashamedly ultra-socialist, and preach the exact opposite of small government low tax.
ReplyDelete"The writer of the article seems to think that everything is right wing if he doesn't agree with it."
ReplyDeleteExactly!
"I'd have said Richard Murphy knows a lot more about freedom from taxes just for wealthy people than the TPA do, the hypocritical prick."
Indeed. Aren't they always?
"Would be good if everyone that blogged on unions always began with "Billy Hayes, leader of the Communications workers union and a £1 million a year minimum donation funder of the labour party, insists that Coalition plans are wrong..""
Now, there's an idea...
"First class blogging, Julia."
Cheers! :)
"I left a comment this lunchtime, but it seems to have disappeared. "
Typical. Mind you, at least it showed up briefly, rather than (in the case of my comments on Gadget's blog) never getting out of moderation limbo!
"has anyone else thought that a rich man buying a new car, boat or an extension for his home, is keeping someone else in a job?"
The 'trickle down effect' is loathed by the left, purely because that rich man now has a new car, boat or extension. They could care less if the poor man has a job.
"I like the TPA. I make no bones about it, mainly because they annoy people."
Just as the Tea Party movement in the Staters, if they are annoying a certain section of the population, they must be doing something right!
"The funny thing about using "right-wing" is that the "right-wing" political parties in the UK are unashamedly ultra-socialist, and preach the exact opposite of small government low tax."
Depressing, isn't it?
Good old Murph, still blurring the lines between tax evasion (illegal) and tax avoidance (legal) for his audience of economic illiterates…
ReplyDeleteShouldn't that be "for his audience of fellow economic illiterates"?
There is a big difference between the UK and the US in that the rich here have far more options to escape tax than in the US. They are able to leave the country and escape its tax authorities, if they wish. This option is not open to their counterparts in the US.
ReplyDeleteIndeed the actual tax policy of the labour government was to give ever more breaks to the rich, while pushing up the burden on the rest of us.
Thus, the rich in the UK have no reason to raise tax as an issue, except on the rare occasion that they are targeted.
That last happened over CGT.
For those who do not understand what is going to happen under the coalition, taxes in the UK are going to rise for the middle classes, while various exemptions will be put in place for the wealthiest.