Hypocrisy and stupidity

Hypocrisy and stupidity are the two things I always have a problem with about Lefty logic. We have a wonderful example of both of these playing out before us right now in Labour’s current behaviour, attacking tax cuts which will boost desperately needed economic growth whilst defending Ken Livingstone’s personal tax avoidance scheme.

Hypocrisy

Lefties, you can’t slag off and smear those who ‘tax plan’ so they pay the least they need to pay and then do the same yourselves. Ken has banged on and on about how the rich are evil for paying the least tax they need to pay whilst doing exactly that himself, by setting up a service company to channel all his earnings through, thus paying 20% Corporation Tax rather than 50% Additional Rate Income Tax.

The Millipede is compounding that hypocrisy by endorsing Ken, trying to pretend that’s Ken’s tax avoidance is not the same thing at all as other people’s tax avoidance - there appears to be acceptable tax avoidance (by Lefties) and evil tax avoidance (by Righties).

If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s a duck. After a few weeks trying to pretend otherwise, Ken actually fessed up yesterday on LBC:



(Great clip - Ken says (a) yes, he avoided tax, (b) it's the logical thing to do for any human being and (c) if you pay the least tax you need to pay you can then use your saved income to create economic growth. He has completely backtracked on years of his Lefty bollocks in one interview).

And it’s also clear that The Millipede and Mrs Yvette Cooper’s latest anti-Coalition PR strategy for next week’s budget is the well-worn ‘tax cuts for the rich’ slogan the Left always falls back on. This perennial favourite taps into the old class war/politics of envy that is still alive and well. Lefties always fan the flames of class discontent to help themselves spread smears about the Right.

Stupidity

When you then deconstruct the Left’s tax arguments, they are utterly stupid and completely self-defeating.

Are we actually suggesting that companies (and individuals for that matter) should volunteer to pay more tax than they need to? This in turn depresses their profits which mean they can afford less expansion, less investment, less employment creation and less pay for their staff? Only a swivel-eyed mad ‘big government’ Lefty would even bother arguing this point. It’s loony, faux logic I would expect from the ‘bruvvers’ on the Left of the trade union movement not national politicians promoting themselves as potential leaders of our economy.

And as I previously explained and predicted here, (a) the only tax cuts that actually deliver growth are Corporation Tax, Capital Gains Tax and the top rate income taxes, which my previous post pointed out the OECD also agreed with and (b) the Left always tries to smear these as tax cuts for the rich.

As ever, the Left plays politics not economics, rather like Gordy’s 50p tax rate which has actually cost the Government income not increased its income. It’s the old ‘fact versus ideology’ conundrum which the Left gets on the wrong side of every time.