Starmer & Reeves Budget 2024 – A whole lotta pain? (PART FIVE)

Trust me…I’m a doctor – Hurts the most

So, as you know, we’ve been following the Wong-Baker scale as applied to new tax measures.

Yes, that old chestnut.

As a recap, we’ve considered the following:

• Part one: ‘No hurt’ and ‘hurts a little bit’
• Part two: ‘Hurts a little bit more’
• Part three: ‘Hurts even more’
• Part four: ‘Hurts a whole lot’

 

Here, we’ve pretty much assumed that Reeves will honour those manifesto commitments which have left us tiptoeing through the fiscal periphery.

 

But is the whole “it’s even worse than we imagined” schtick simply a cover to allow them to break those commitments?

 

Someone might say, it would be the adult thing to do. “Our promises were based on half the picture. All bets are now off!”

 

You wouldn’t operate based on an old scan.

 

This would, amongst others, allow changes to income tax and NICS – after all, these are the heavy lifters when it comes to raising revenue.

 

However, would this be a case of where the therapy is not worth the political side-effects?

 

It would also allow the wealth tax mentioned above. Previously ruled out.

 

Pass me the anaesthetic.