A former Tory MP gets it:
But the question is not whether the country can afford tax cuts. The country can no longer afford to pay the taxes demanded by government from the population. Britain’s tax burden is growing faster than that of any other European country, with middle-class taxpayers working nearly half the year for the state. Failure to reduce, simplify and make fairer the burden and collection of taxes is actually reducing economic activity, lowering economic growth – and even reducing the total amount of revenue collected.
Meanwhile, Nigel Lawson, Mrs. T’s greatest chancellor, has this to say in a letter to the Spectator:
Pressed to promise tax cuts during the recent Conservative Party Conference, both Mr Cameron and Mr Osborne [the shadow chancellor] were anxious to point out that Margaret Thatcher didn’t promise tax cuts in 1979. What the 1979 Conservative Manifesto actually said was ‘We shall cut income tax at all levels to reward hard work, responsibility and success.’ I hope we can now take it that the same non-promise will feature in the next Conservative manifesto. Yours sincerely, Nigel Lawson.
Hat-tip: Tory Diary
Meanwhile, for memories of a rather different Tory leader, go here.