Politicians, let’s talk about anything other than taxes
Date published:
The Chamber’s latest column for The Journal by Rachel Anderson, assistant director – policy
Are you excited about the election? I bet you are, the sign on the door saying you’ve gone to enjoy the balmy delights of a Falkland Islands winter and won’t be returning until 5 July is a dead giveaway.
Politicians vying for our attention is hard to avoid, whether it is tying themselves in knots over Gaza or trying to salvage something from a trainwreck decision to skip some D-Day ceremonies, we’re going to spend another three weeks in electioneering purgatory.
This week is manifesto week, and we expect all of the main parties to tell us what their policies actually are, which will be a refreshing change. Most of the campaign heat and light so far has focused on taxation and who can say the least about how to pay for things. Each party says they can deliver, but not how they’ll pay for it if not through taxes.
When challenged, there is usually some vague phraseology around “efficiencies”. That’s when we need to talk, particularly about public services. Our public services are already efficient, they’ve had to be, the austerity agenda has made them so. To make further cuts, sorry, “efficiencies” will be far too damaging.
Chamber members already report difficulties and delays in services such as planning, the tax office, the courts service, which put the brakes on productivity in the rest of the economy. It becomes a vicious circle, the private sector needs regulators and public agencies to work so they can do business efficiently, generate profits and pay taxes to pay for public services. If public services don’t work at their best because they are starved of cash, no-one wins.
Public services are not headline grabbing, with maybe the exception of the NHS, and yet they are probably the biggest issue no-one is talking about. They are also a convenient money mine for politicians looking to dig for cash without digging directly in the public’s pockets. Eventually though, that digging ends up costing us all dear.
What we really lack is a grown up, well thought out debate on services and taxation. It’s dull, nobody wants to do it, but it is truly vital to all other parts of the economy and so undersold.
So, if you tire of the Falklands and are around for the campaign, ask the canvassers on your doorstep what they will do to fund the local environmental health department or Sheriffs service. They’ll splutter and try to talk to you about tax; but it’s the only way we’ll get them to take things seriously.