After the general election the country is going to have to be

Comment on Why I’ll Never Vote Conservative at a General Election by David.

After the general election the country is going to have to be taxed more to deal with the deficit, that’s a fact.

If we don’t raise National Insurance which tax would you suggest we raise instead?

Income tax: Labour and Conservatives tend to stay away from that tax as it’s a direct tax even though there’s no real difference in raising National Insurance relative to raising Income Tax (same people pay the money).

Increasing NI or Income Tax across the board is a fair way to raise more money. Those who can afford more, pay more.

VAT: Historically the go to tax for the Tories, this has a damaging effect on the poorest in society, no matter who you are you pay more for gas, electricity, food, entertainment… meaning those with least money can spend less on non essentials that drives many parts of the economy.

I don’t have an issue with the poorest in society contributing as well to our problems, but it’s counter productive to take too much money from them as those with no disposable income as such spend all their money anyway. Do we want more of a poor families money going direct to government in the form of VAT or have it being spent on goods and services that drives the economy (people spending money is what drives the economy)?

IMO increasing VAT would be more damaging to the economy than raising NI contributions (both are damaging, but more money needs to be raised to cut government debt).

Efficiency savings are a joke, yes government is VERY wasteful, but in case you haven’t noticed despite the government saying they aren’t cutting services they have been since the credit crunch hit (they had no choice).

Councils who allocate funds on the ground have less money, they have had to cut services in one way or another. In my area East Lindsey District Council stopped collecting green bins over the winter period (November to April) to save money.

I heard on the news earlier that Labour planned to cut 35 billion in efficiency saving between 2007-2010 and so far they have saved only 11 billion. Government is already trying to save money through efficiency savings, but no matter who is in government they tend to do a bad job.

After the general election if the Conservatives win they’ll cut money to public services and say it was efficiency savings when it’s mostly a spending cut.

David