The TaxPayers’ Alliance has published a new poll today, carried out by ComRes, which gives an interesting insight into the public’s view of the financial crisis and the Government’s response to it.
Particularly striking is the public’s view of the big spending, neo-Keynesian response that Gordon Brown and Alastair Darling have been emphasising in recent days. Far from being the vote-winning approach they may have hoped, their plan to spend more and borrow huge amounts to deal with the recession has the support of only 18% of the public.
Instead, a strong 59% majority believe tax cuts are the best way to respond to the economic crisis, and 68% also want an “immediate and substantial” cut in interest rates. Far from being the pork-barrel big spenders that the Government imagined, the public are clearly tired of glitzy, big ticket projects. People would rather have money in their pockets now to help keep their heads above water than yet more large public projects, with all the waste, delays and mismanagement they inevitably entail.
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