Tuesday 28 June 2016

Eurofail #1 - VAT

From the LVT Campaign:

The EU began as a noble concept. Unfortunately, it has consistently got the economics wrong, thereby sowing the seeds of its ultimate destruction. The EU gave us VAT, CAP, a tariff wall and expensive food. It would be difficult to conceive of a worse combination.

Bearing in mind that all taxes apart from LVT amplify the effects of locational disadvantage, it is not surprising that support for Brexit came from the country's margins, not excluding parts of the South-East*. This is not to suggest that those who voted to leave were making a reasoned and calculated choice. At that level it was a gut reaction, with nasty overtones. However, if one neglects one's back garden, weeds will grow. Some, such as knotweed, can undermine a house. The UK has neglected its fringes for many decades.

The first of the ugly sisters is VAT...


For rest of article, follow the link above.

* At the other extreme, beyond the margin (NI, Scotlan), a majority also voted Bremain because the EU-related subsidies they receive blind them to the fact that those subsidies are only part-compensation for the underlying and nigh unquantifiable economic damage.

5 comments:

James Higham said...

Nasty overtones? From one side only as we're now seeing.

paulc156 said...

"nasty overtones" the debate made possible a great deal of xenophobia.
You only have to switch on the TV to see ordinary folk, not even thugs by appearance, now demanding that we kick the migrants out/send them home. Routine sentiments expressed openly, in Canvey and East coast, in Wales, in the North.

Bayard said...

"the debate made possible a great deal of xenophobia"

I think the correct word there is "exposed". It is hardly likely that all those "ordinary folk" were converted to xenophobia by the Brexit debate, and, even if they were, it would have been the same if we had voted to stay. The fault, if there is a fault, lies with those who started the debate. Anyone who didn't think that it would lead to the scenes you refer to is a fool.

DBC Reed said...

@B
Quite. There is a class of person in this country, and has been since the war who is itching to boot people out . Is anybody seriously suggesting that if there had been a referendum in prosperous 1968 ( Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speech) suggesting the repatriation of West Indians, the country would not have already disgraced itself? Of course, since then the usual political suspects have institutionalised the bribery of homeowners with unearned capital gains in house prices to vote against the interests of working people whatever their background.
The political establishment used to be wary of referendums because the standard argument was we would end up with the restoration of hanging.The present play-boy intake of politicans has not learned that simple lesson (what have they learned?) and came up with this EU referendum probably thinking that its subject matter was supremely boring.They were counting without the pig-ignorant talents of Farage to pervert the issues.

Bayard said...

"The present play-boy intake of politicans has not learned that simple lesson (what have they learned?)"

Yup, that's what you get when you have professional politicians who have never had to make a living outside the Westminster bubble.