Sharpe's Opinion
Monday, 24th Nov, 2008
VAT has been reduced from 17.5 to 15 per cent. Let’s have a very quck history lesson on VAT, shall we? When Labour left office in 1979, VAT was at eight per cent. Thatcher, who had explicitly promised, during the election campaign, not to double VAT, then doubled VAT, setting it at 15 per cent. Then, as soon as the Tories managed to get shot of Mrs T, they tried to repair the mess left by the poll tax, offering an across-the-board cut of £140 to every voter/poll tax payer. To fund this, they increased VAT by 2.5 per cent.
So, at least we can establish that the Tories have absolutely no grounds for criticising this government for having the temerity to reduce VAT.
Huh? Come on, Mr Harris – what you just said is that the Tories are proven supporters of VAT, and so they can’t criticise the government for lowering VAT. Precisely the opposite is true – since the Tories evidently believe that VAT is a useful tax, they have every grounds for opposing its reduction.
Where did you learn to construct an argument, Tom? Oh yeah, I forgot. Former Journalist. All explained.
(NB this is not intended to be a post about the usefulness or otherwise of VAT, just an observation that Tom Harris seems to have difficulty constructing arguments where one sentence actually agrees with the one before it…)