TOP STORIES

Saturday 2 November 2013

Saturday, November 02, 2013 Posted by Jake 8 comments Labels: , , , , ,
Posted by Jake on Saturday, November 02, 2013 with 8 comments | Labels: , , , , ,

It is commonly assumed that the Labour Party is more into taxing us than the Conservatives. Perhaps it is down to assumptions about redistributing wealth and maintaining public services - Labour assumed to want more, Tories assumed to want less.

The raw data shows something different.

According to figures compiled by the Adam Smith Institute, taking the average over the last 50 years the nation has had to work 11 days longer to pay off our taxes under Tory governments than Labour! Crumbs!


I wonder how that could be?
Graph updated to include 2015

"Tax Freedom Day" calculates all the taxes taken by the government as a percentage of net national income, and then applies that percentage to the calendar year. It purports to give an indication of how long all our nation has to work to pay all the taxes, after which we are working for ourselves.

[We are grateful to @Zenarchy1 for bringing this data compiled by the Adam Smith Institute (who promote libertarian and free-market ideals, so not likely to bend the statistics to favour the left) to our attention].

8 comments:

  1. Not to be too cynical but is this because Labour are less worried about borrowing money to spend on public services?

    ReplyDelete
  2. @Anonymous19 November 2013 17:15 Don't believe what you either read in the Daily Mail, or what comes out of Tory HQ. Are you also aware that in 2010, Labour left us with a national debt of £600billion? It is now, under a Tory led government, standing at £1200billion? And by 2015 it is prodeicted to reach a massive £1600billion?

    ReplyDelete
  3. @Anonymous Actually under Thatcher/ Major years the national debt as GDP% was higher on average than under Blair/Brown years

    ReplyDelete
  4. To be fair, that chart does seem to show the number of days going up under Labour governments and falling under conservative ones.

    ReplyDelete
  5. People can be as cynical as they like about the Labour record!

    It doesn't change the *fact* that as a % of GDP, taxation/borrowing/spending/deficit has ALL been LOWER during Labour administrations then Tory ones since records began after WW2!

    Unless of course you disbelieve the spin in the December stats by that Labour-riddled Office for Budget Responsibility! ;-)

    #ToryMyths #ToryLies

    ReplyDelete
  6. Who spent how much is not the main issue as I see it. Deficit spending can be a good thing if the money is spent well. Which it wasn't under labour. They wasted it on creating bureaucratic, non-jobs and neglected critical economic infrastructure such as energy and transport.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The Tories privatised gas, electricity, BR, most bus companies, and so on. Why exactly should Labour have spent our taxes in shoring up private companies?

    ReplyDelete
  8. I notice all Tory comments are by anon?.. so proud Labour covered the cost of the bankers for torys to give them bonus's....after making it look like Labour caused the mess?.... If they are so good why has the debt gone up with all this austerity?.. why have they given more tax cuts to the richest 1% than the rest if the country?.... School pals?..all in it together?... Foodbanks gone up another Tory gift? No money for schools hospitals but loads for war?..arms dealer donations ?..all very strange...unless your in thier club....

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Share This

Follow Us

  • Subscribe via Email

Search Us