If you follow me you are probably quite on the ball with all things finance. Even if you are not then you’re probably a UK citizen of voting age. On that basis your opinion on things matters. With the budget coming up it’s reasonably to ask what people are hoping for from it.
I asked a simple question to make sure the answers were clear. We only have taxes and spending at our disposals as levers really and they normally only go up or down. Rarely are these levers in the neutral position.
With that in mind I asked if wanted more taxes and spending, less taxes and spending or more taxes but less spending. I presumed nobody would want lower taxes and more spending so didn’t give that as an option. It will come as no surprise that most people think that records levels of taxes should be reduced but also that record levels of spending should also be reduced.
Does this mean the others are wrong or missing something? Well not really. Why? Well there is a fair argument for getting more money in and also reducing spend. This would be the fastest way to reduce our deficit and heaven forbid start to eat in to national debt.
There was also a reasonable vote for increasing both. Again I can see some merit but at what point do we have to change tactic? After all this has been the plan for essentially my entire adult life. Spend everything that comes in and borrow on top of that. Even the “austerity” years included overspending in every single year (ie we were never in actual austerity at all!).
The key question is of course is anyone listening at number 11? And as if I predicted what was happening yesterday they seem to have realised that ploughing on with more tax increases would be bad for their careers. I’m not sold that they think it would be bad for the country mind. I think they are looking after their careers.