Bournemouth
The current Tory position on tax cuts is rather like the doctrine of the Trinity. It makes no sense unless you know the questions that lie behind it. It is not really a position about tax cuts, but a position about how to go into an election campaign. In 2001, Oliver Letwin was chased high and low by the press who wanted him to confirm his suggestion that there would be huge spending cuts over the course of a parliament. In 2005, Mr Letwin, by then shadow chancellor, stuck to spending cuts of £8 billion, but Howard Flight exploded this in a private, leaked speech which suggested much bigger cuts concealed. This time, the Tories do not want to have any rate or amount of tax or spend that can be hung round their necks. They want to avoid having to make any specific promise at all. Their position that spending will rise, but that ‘the proceeds of growth’ will allow them to cut taxes as well, at least has the merit that it will probably turn out to be true (no government in modern times has actually cut tax, as opposed to cutting its share of GDP).
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