Opinion Poll II
The Telegraph's opinion poll seems pretty contradictory over taxation and spending.The 'anxious middle classes' are indeed anxious about their finances, with 78% saying they pay too much tax, 85% saying much of it is wasted, and 33% saying if the Tories campaigned to lower tax they would be more likely to vote for them.
On the whole though they seem to love government spending, particularly on pensions and healthcare. Tellingly given the choice of where to spend an extra £3bn, 49% say on the NHS, second only to the 51% who wish to reduce council tax bills. More spending on pensions and less tax on petrol are also well supported. Lowering income tax gets a paltry 21%. For the country as a whole all of these results are magnified (NHS is the favoured, then council tax, with income tax cuts not popular).
One way to get around this hate tax, love spending paradox is that the nation wants the government to borrow huge amounts of money. Another more realistic is that its obvious when you are asked 'Do you pay too much tax' to say 'yes, of course'. When you are asked 'is much of it wasted', again 'yes of course' (£10,000 of waste would be a lot).
Few people think tax is a great thing. It is the price you pay to enjoy public spending. And lots of people seem to like that.
posted by Matthew @ 12/09/2003 12:33:00 PM
Comments: 0
