Evil robber barons?

What to call this government has been a problem for the opposition from day one. This blog dislikes “ConDems” as sad name-calling, and prefers "Tory government" because that is what it is. Would you, a time traveller from pre1997 regard it as anything else? "Tory-led coalition" is Labour’s favourite label in the couple of weeks since Miliband hired two proper media minders.

That said let’s get on to business.  Yesterday Michael Burke in the Guardian made a compelling argument that questioned the motives of the Tory-led coalition. “Forget reducing the deficit”, he writes, “the coalition's real objective seems to be to take from the poor and give to the rich.” He calls it "Robin Hood in reverse"

Burke argues that Tory policy is fundamentally nothing to do with deficit reduction, that while increasing VAT to 20%, which hits those on the lowest incomes, “the government is simultaneously cutting income taxes in real terms by freezing thresholds and the upper earnings limit as well as cutting national insurance contributions – but only for employers, not employees.”

He goes on to say “The income tax measures disproportionately benefit the higher paid, as well as the NI cut represent an estimated loss to the exchequer of more than £6.6bn. There are also a host of additional tax cuts or freezes, including a cut in corporation tax, small business profits and council tax which together will amount to just under £12.6bn in the financial year 2014/15, according to official estimates. This is almost exactly the same as the expected yield then from the VAT hike of £13.45bn.”

“Therefore these policy choices are not about deficit reduction at all. They constitute a reordering of the tax system in favour of high earners and companies at the expense of middle income earners and the poor.”

 “Combined with ferocious cuts in benefits and services on which the poor and vulnerable depend, they represent a huge transfer of wealth and incomes from the poor to the rich.” Key beneficiaries of the tax cuts will be the banks, for whom the cut in corporation tax will far exceed the £2bn bank levy.

Surely the Labour Party can distill the above into a compelling and direct argument against the “Tory-led coalition”. The most effective rebuttal is exposure. Miliband is right that by formulating hastily sketched out counter policies Labour would be playing into PRDave’s hands. “The wrong tax at the wrong time” is ear catching and a start. More please, but only as long as Labour is clear about principles, the most fundamental of which is a more equal and fairer Britain. Then let the policies follow.