Following the reversal of the ban on fracking, and the most significant budget in decades, with the biggest tax cuts in 50 years, it's pretty clear, that we have, not just a new prime minister and a new Chancellor, but a brand new government. It's almost like, there's been a general election, in which the public voted for change.
It's now a race against time for Truss and Kwarteng, the bravest double act since the Wright brothers, the inventors of flight, for this bold plan to kick in and reap dividends.
Let's hope their plane, doesn't crash and burn. Not only is this the first Conservative government in years that looks and feels Conservative, it's the first government, of any colour, in as long as I can remember, that actually believes in something. And that something is capitalism. It's always encouraging, to have a policy that doesn't need a lot of explaining. A policy that is clear and unambiguous. The three words of Get Brexit Done swept the tories to a landslide victory in 2019. Go for growth, could do a similar job for Liz Truss in 2024, or earlier.
Why should we always rely, on the international bond markets, and money printing, to pay for our schools, police and hospitals? Why not pay for it, out of national income, and that's what this push for growth is all about. This budget has been mischaracterised as trickle down economics, an idea that dates back to the 80s, and US president Ronald Reagan, in which you hand the wealthiest huge amounts of money and hope they spend it. That's not what we witnessed yesterday. This is a push for growth on the supply side, in other words to sow the seeds for the economy to grow and get bigger and stronger and to bear more fruit.
To boost investment, the hiring of staff, to achieve pay rises for workers and to put more money into the pockets of every Brit, so that they can go shopping. Why is that important? Because love it or hate it 60% of our economy is based on consumption – buying stuff.
Labour have condemned this budget, but I'm so confused, because they were so critical of Rishi Sunak, the then Chancellor, when he announced the rise in national insurance. They said it was a tax on jobs and attacks on hard-working Brits which would disproportionately hurt the poorest. Well they were right then and it's been reversed.
So what's changed? Crikey I hope politics are not at play. And as is all too often the case these days, this governments unapologetically capitalist plan, has been mischaracterised by those who want to see Britain maintain its crack cocaine addiction to tax-and-spend. They're in uproar about the bankers bonus, even though it didn't make a blind bit of difference as highflyers just received more income through payroll instead. And Alistair Heath, writing in the Telegraph today rightly points out that the 45% high rate of tax was more performative, more political than anything else, given the pathetic amount of money it actually brings in. 40% is a much better headline figure, because it encourages wealthy people to come to this country, stay in this country, invest and spend their cash here and pay their taxes here. Thanks to yesterday's budget, Britain now stands as a global beacon for enterprise and aspiration. And I believe in time Britain will be a model for the 21st century economy. Low tax, simplified, innovative and dynamic, and an economy in which it works to pay. Not sit around all day watching Loose Women and Countdown.
Margaret Thatcher transformed our economy in the 80s, with low taxes and union reform, something it took the likes of the French and the Germans decades to catch up with.
Well this is another great leap forward and let me tell you that post Brexit, EU nations will never be able to compete with attractive, investable low tax Britain. EU nations are rooted in social Democratic ideology which involves big tax and big state. Critics of yesterday's budget have also chosen to exaggerate the scale of change. Even with the welcome tax cuts yesterday, which put money back into ordinary peoples wallets, taxation levels are still astonishingly high. As pointed out yesterday by former chief Brexit negotiator Lord Frost, referencing a chart by economist Matthew Lesh.
Or how about this explainer which has been doing the rounds, which puts the levels of tax paid in perspective?
“A person on £20,000 please 2856. A person on £200,000, pays 85178 30 times more tax on only 10 times more income. A person on £1 million pays 435 000, that's 152 times more tax on 50 times more salary”.
But this is my favourite tweet. It's from a young person, making her way in the world.
“Unpopular opinion - £100k salary is not the wealth you think it is. After tax,your take home monthly is £5,457. If you are a man with a family of 4-with a wife who is yet to go back to work, with a mortgage of £2000… no one can tell me that family is rich based on that alone”.
Who wrote that this week?
One of the panellists on my show tonight, political commentator Lin Mei.
You’ll be hearing from her, Peter Edwards and Edwina Currie shortly. So this should just be the first step in the transformation of Britain. There's also a deliberate misunderstanding of how tax works and how much people on different incomes actually pay. So let me clarify. How about this corker from this guy
"So once the taxis are coming down, we're not exactly Dubai." More's the pity.
It's time to go for growth and push for aspirational Britain. Something that happened in the capitalist revolution under Margaret Thatcher in the 80s, and to be fair we continued in the late 90s and early naughties by then Prime Minister Tony Blair. Don’t forget old Gordon Brown was the toast of the City of London, the banker’s hero. But his successor Keir Starmer will undo all of that.
His deputy Angela Rayner has already tweeted that Labour will likely reverse these tax cuts.
But what would she and Sir Keir say to this voter, who speaks for many.
According to online calculators yesterdays budget puts an extra £1300 a year in my pocket … I’m just an ordinary working bloke .. so why would the party that claims to represent “the working man” object to that ?
So there you have it. Vote labour and vote for higher taxes. There is a sweet spot in taxation, where it’s high enough to fulfil the needs of the country in terms of public services, but not too high as to be a disincentive for people to take their business and money elsewhere. Before yesterday, we were well north of that sweet spot, with the highest tax burden since the 40s. Wealthy people paying less tax is not a good look, I'll grant you. It's a gift to Labour, but Truss and Kwarteng are looking at the bigger picture. They want to grow the economy at all costs, no matter how unpopular and unphotogenic the policies are, to make that happen. We should be focused upon the outcome – a bigger more productive economy –rather than the means to get there.
Because if the economy grows, we all win. And yesterday's budget taps into the potential of Brexit, because rooted in what was announced yesterday is the principle of economic and political freedom
Aaron Chown
Because if the economy grows, we all win. And yesterday's budget taps into the potential of Brexit, because rooted in what was announced yesterday is the principle of economic and political freedom, something impossible, if we were still in the block. Money's too tight to mention, but if you keep raising taxes, the graph stays simply red. For too long, sluggish, unproductive Britain has been “holding back the years”, but now a “new flame” has been lit. To carry on, in a spiral of high tax and low growth is taking the Mick. For those talking Britain down and criticising this ambitions budget, that will deliver for all, I couldn't give a Hucknall. If we go for growth, we’ll be top of the pops.