Suffolk Free Press and its support for right wing economics

Letter to SFP

Dear Editor

Britt’s battle cry is “Charity”.  But his shrink-the-state-rhetoric (“How to stop state thievery”) is a recipe for social chaos. The Tory’s anarchical policy of keeping taxes low for the rich and pretending that the hit-and-miss efforts of charity can plug the gaps will always hit the majority of citizens hardest.

Giving to charity is obviously of huge social benefit whether people offer money, time or good neighbourliness. But it is no substitute for a well-resourced state system receiving money raised by progressive taxation.  Democratically accountable governments have to justify their priorities and are far more likely to spend according to real social need than mere ad hoc charitable giving.

If you don’t fund state services properly through taxation you end up with a fragile, broken and insecure society.  Take, for example, the government’s austerity policies which have been closely scrutinised recently because of the increase in knife crime. 

A short-fall in police numbers is no doubt an important factor, but if you also drastically reduce funding for youth services and sixth-form education, treat children in the care system badly, turn away hundreds of children a day from mental health services, close schools in some areas early on a Friday because you can’t pay teachers for the full week, routinely reject children who are eligible for special educational needs support because you have no resources, then you are creating a serious social crisis.

One day, hopefully sooner rather than later, the Tories’ economic and social mis-management through ill-conceived tax cuts and tax relief for the rich, will be exposed.

Mr Britt’s mention of Forbes magazine is significant.  This magazine’s raison d’etre is to make the super-rich look generous through philanthropic donations whilst advising them on how to make far more money through exploiting tax loopholes and using tax havens to hide their immense wealth.  The real crime here is ‘tax avoidance thievery’ not ‘state thievery’. The Treasury estimates that about £3 billion is lost through tax avoidance every year.

As a self-styled Brexiteer, Mr Britt should be celebrating that Sir James Dyson paid £127.8 million in taxes last year.  Dyson doesn’t carp on about paying tax because he knows that there’s something deeply positive about the idea that we each pay in tax collectively to support one another and build something greater than we could alone through mere charity.

Yours sincerely