Quote of the day 31st October 2024 - Winston Churchill on tax

One of the most common things said to people like who are involved in politics is variations on "You're all the same."

You cannot ask for more conclusive evidence that Britain's political parties are not all the same than yesterday's budget.

To deal with the financial consequences of the pandemic, the last government had already had to reluctantly raise taxes to historically high levels, much higher than we would have liked.

Despite promises from Labour during the election that they would not raise taxes on "working people," they hit everyone in Britain yesterday with even higher taxes, including both the biggest tax  rise in British history and the highest tax burden in British history (including wartime.)

This at the same time that, despite Labour promises to cut energy prices, those energy prices are actually going up, and bashing pensioners with a measure that Lsboiur themselves in opposition said woiuld result in nearly 4,000 pensioners a year literally freezing to death.

Sir Winston Churchill had some wise words on this kind of tax rise and how ridiculous it is to expect it to lead to growth:

"for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket trying to lift himself up by the handle."