Posts Tagged ‘Tax’
Clegg on VAT
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on June 26th, 2010
I enjoyed Nick Clegg’s efforts on BBC News the other day. He was trying to defend the government’s 20% VAT proposal, increasing it from today’s 17.5%. And, of course, he did very well.
But the truth he couldn’t say, was that the VAT increase would not have been his choice. It cannot be right, in my opinion, to raise sales taxes that affect everyone, when there are income taxes that could be amended to affect only those able to pay. From a personal point of view, a local income tax in place of Council Tax, set at a level that would raise just a little more money from the well-off and taking about the same from those in the worst situations, would have been a fairer way.
But Clegg, if he doesn’t support the VAT increase, cannot say so. He has to compromise on some things much as the Conservatives have compromised.
The government’s doing a good job — I just hope it does as many of the good things that it can, before the next elections when, unless electoral reform is carried out, the old parties will regain power.
The NHS for the US
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on August 15th, 2009
The US has polarised the argument about the NHS and made unreasonable arguments the order of the day.
Just because I say (as I have in the real world) that the NHS doesn’t do a particularly good or efficient job does not mean to suggest I am criticising the NHS’s staff or that I think it is anything but a moral imperative that people are treated for injuries and ailments regardless of their ability to pay. It’s just that I believe that the inevitable redundancy required in genuine competition would provide a better, more efficient and, if well-regulated, a fairer healthcare solution for the British people.
There are many problems in the UK which result in our current levels of excessive taxation, and the NHS is just one of the bigger of those problems. Even if people thought that the current levels of taxation were reasonable, shouldn’t we have at least one service provided by them that is world class?
What they need to do (now)
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on October 29th, 2008
Why should I say anything when others do a better job. See what Money Marketing have to say about the yacht.
Icelandic banks a forewarning
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on October 17th, 2008
Guthrum has a post which mentions a warning all the way back in March 2008. Watch the Channel 4 warning:
Brown’s a good study
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on September 22nd, 2008
… but not at Maths:
Green taxes re-thought
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on July 9th, 2008
George Osborne was on Radio 4 this morning making a very clear and intelligent argument in favour of the principle of green taxes.
I think most people these days are a little cynical about green taxes. Isn’t it true, they say, that green taxes are about revenue rather than behaviour? Isn’t it true that outside of London there is no viable alternative to private transport? And isn’t it true that a tax meant to disincentivise a behaviour, in the absence of an alternative, serves only to hurt the lower and middle earners?
Well Osborne’s solution is to create price stability — ensure the effective price of oil maintains a certain level and there will be a realistic chance of people investing in alternatives. Make long-term guarantees about the minimum level of landfill tax and then companies can be sure that it is worth investing in making money out of the situation.
While we would all like to believe that people and companies do the right thing because it’s the right thing, there’s absolutely no harm in allowing companies to profit from environmentally friendly practices. Even though there are arguments about the ‘green-ness’ of the Toyota Prius, no-one can claim it has been bad for the Toyota company.
Our current government announces things at pre-budget report stage and if they’re unpopular, changes its mind on the day of the budget. Osborne and co. have promised that there won’t be a raft of surprise new measures on the day of the budget which will allow companies and early-adopter consumers to know that their purchases and money-making exercises are going to have a sound-business case in five years time.
Like social welfare and the NHS, the Conservatives have taken the lead on another policy area — environmental realism.
Train or car (no dilemma)
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on February 9th, 2008
I would really like to have given a few more updates this week, but I really don’t have enough time!
So just a quick note: I am going into town later to do some shopping. I am literally a two minute walk from the railway station and, for all my differences of opinion with left-wing environmentalists, I do care about the ability of this planet to support humanity. I therefore decided to get the train in.
But then I was reminded that I have to go over to Ditchling tonight — I may have time to come back but I may not. Once again the lack of a genuinely available public transport system has caused me to burn unnecessary carbon. It is the responsibility of all of us to do what we can to protect the environment, but some of “all” of us have more capabilities to do that. Central government needs to make strong, clear policy announcements on public transport, and especially the railways, in the South East generally, and in the countryside specifically.
There are clearly not enough tracks between Brighton and London (fast trains must go sufficiently after a so-called slow-train that it does not catch the other train up — how pointless is that?) and there are absolutely no tracks (or buses in most cases) between rural towns and villages in Sussex.
An NHS alternative
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on January 18th, 2008
The road to hell, says DK (of the excellent Devil’s Kitchen), is paved with good intentions. And he’s right. The NHS is a stinking tax vacuum which, if left in the hands of the socialists, will one-day become the largest employer in the world (rather than just in Europe).
But in a previous post I also criticised the US’s can’t-pay-then-die system which is, to put it simply, wrong. In a civilised country it is right that provision of healthcare for those who cannot afford to pay is made from general taxation. If that makes me an impure libertarian then so be it.
But this system does not have to be the NHS. It doesn’t even have to be in place somewhere else. So here’s what I propose:
The railways in the UK were privatised by the last government in the most awful way. Ticket prices are not set by individual operators and so if I buy a ticket from Brighton to London it effectively does not matter which company’s trains I use. This ruins the point of privatisation — competition.
Oops, I just lost some of my audience by talking about privatisation; well come back will you?
The NHS needs genuine competition. The way I propose to introduce that is to allow half of all hospitals in each area to be run privately. Whatever the state spends per patient, the private hospital in the same area would get the same money. The incentive, then, would be to attract patients to your private hospital in order to receive some of that funding. Money that is not required to provide patient care is then made available to the private hospital’s shareholders. The drive for efficiency to create profits would be balanced by the need to attract patients and so be better than the NHS hospital.
The private hospital would be free at the point of use (because it receives matching funding from the state) and would be heavily regulated in the same effective way the financial services sector in the UK is (and which is clearly not working in the US).
Alongside this revolutionary healthcare system would be a change in incentives for drugs companies. Currently there is a clear conflict of interests whereby drugs companies can make more money from treating illnesses than from curing them. So the drug companies need an incentive to attempt to cure ailments. This should be done by using a competitive prize system where prizes are larger than the likely profits from symptom-relievers. I challenge some philanthropist to start up a charitable foundation to fund these prizes — I would happily contribute to that fund!
And finally, let’s be clear, Sicko is not even as unbiased as the BBC; it is a propaganda work which sits on a body of fact and then changes aspects to suit the maker’s own ends. I enjoyed Sicko, I found aspects of it (that are true) disturbing and I found aspects of it laughable. The reactions of British patients and doctors was clearly genuine — Brits do tend to laugh at that sort of question in a way that Americans do not.
NHS – best of British
Posted by: Gav in Gavin Ayling's blog on December 15th, 2007
[Cameron] held up the NHS as a “best of British” institution: “created by a Welshman and benefiting from the skills of doctors trained in the great medical schools of Scotland.”
… and financed by the poor of England to the benefit of the poor and wealthy of Scotland.
