Tagged with YouGov

The Thatcherite agenda lives on more for Blair than for Britain

The poll conducted by You-Gov Cambridge and published this week in The Guardian shows that the British are more ready than the Americans, French and Germans to affirm their continued belief in the values of fairness, compassion, and concern for others, and to look to their government to act in line with those values.

The poll’s message is salutary, coming as it does in the week of Thatcher’s funeral and a few days after Tony Blair’s advice to Ed Miliband that he should not risk any re-affirmation of traditional Labour values. We are a less Thatcherite country than her acolytes would have us believe, and the route to electoral success for Labour is a braver one than Tony Blair understands. Continue reading →

Public support higher taxes for rich

The latest YouGov opinion poll continues to demonstrate public support for more progressive taxes. Supporters of abolishing the 50p top rate of income tax outnumber opponents, for example, by almost three to one (59% to 23%). Labour and Lib Dem supporters support it most strongly(70/72% to 16/15% respectively) but even Tory voters do by 50% to 37%. Supporters of a new annual “mansion tax” on houses worth over £1m outnumber opponents 63% to 27% (even amongst Tories).

The public also support cutting indirect taxes which most heavily penalise the poor, through higher prices on essential goods and services. Cutting VAT from 20% to 17.5% as advocated by Labour is supported by 86% with only 9% against,  and cutting fuel duty preferred by exactly the same margin.

Time to break consensus on Libya

The time for Labour to break with the consensus on Libya is long overdue. The line that continues to be peddled by Jim Murphy from the front bench is “we back the Nato-led operation and continue to offer the Government our support wherever possible.” What criticism is made is to argue that more resources should have been made available in the defence review — and he’s not arguing it should come from cancelling the Trident replacement! Yet no-one pretends that the Coalition’s current objectives remain based on the security council’s view and half the public now think the Coalition’s military action in Libya is going badly. Continue reading →