The Telegraph, July 24, Roger Bootle
So now we know the final two contestants to become our next Prime Minister, and tax has come to be the key dividing line between the two. But are the differences between them on this issue really so stark? And aren’t there more important things at stake?
The left-leaning policy establishment and media have attacked Liz Truss’s pledge to cut taxes immediately as irresponsible and even ridiculous. Not for the first time, they are well wide of the mark. The apparent purity of the “you mustn’t spend what you don’t have” doctrine is completely at odds with the facts of fiscal policy.
We are borrowing huge amounts anyway to fund current spending. Yet no one suggests that we should be raising taxes even more to reduce borrowing to zero. Indeed, lest we forget, not that long ago the then-chancellor Rishi Sunak was borrowing in order to subsidise eating out.
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