The main priority is to keep tax-mad Corbyn out of No 10
THOSE of us of a certain age may remember an oft-repeated Tory election slogan: cows moo, dogs bark, Labour puts up taxes. It worked because it rang very true. But whatever we may have seen in the past from Labour governments, Britain has never previously been in the hands of the likes of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell – revolutionary socialists who view their Labour predecessors, such as Gordon Brown and Tony Blair with open contempt.
For today’s Labour leadership, tax is not a necessary evil to pay for public services. They believe that in a true socialist state we would owe everything to the state. Their default position is that the state should be in control of our lives.
Power has one purpose for them: to change Britain for ever into a socialist state modelled on the likes of Venezuela and Cuba.
ONE aspect of this is taxes. Their political philosophy would have us all work for the state, so taxes become irrelevant. The state would provide for us all. But in the meantime, taxation is the mechanism through which their socialist vision can be implemented.
They will never say this, of course. Shadow chancellor Mr McDonnell has, for instance, become skilled at his Mr Avuncular act, but the reality is that he is a hardcore revolutionary.
Yesterday it emerged that Labour has proposed 24 new taxes or rises since Mr Corbyn became leader.
This year, for example, Mr McDonnell called for taxes to be increased for workers earning more than £28,080 – which would affect 12.4 million people by an average of £2,500.
He has also spoken about a “gift tax” on transfers within families of more than £125,000 over a lifetime, which would affect more than 10 million
people – such as parents who want to give their children a start on the housing ladder.
The Financial Times has calculated that Labour would need to find an extra £26billion a year to cover its spending proposals. That money has to come from somewhere – and that somewhere is taxpayers.
In their 2017 manifesto, Labour threatened a land value tax that would penalise anyone with a large garden.
In total, in their last election campaign, Mr McDonnell outlined £50billion a year in new public spending. That was to be paid for by taking an extra £48billion a year in taxes.
Since then, Labour has said it would – in addition – reverse all social security cuts since 2015. And Mr McDonnell has admitted that the party’s 2017 plans would be left far behind, saying that its policies have been “radicalised” since then. “We have to rewrite the rules of our economy,” he said. “Change is coming.” This is the context in which the current battles over Brexit must be seen.
It has, for example, been suggested that if he can’t get an adequate Brexit deal with the EU before the deadline of October 31, Boris Johnson will resign as Prime Minister.
It’s easy to see how that may well seem the only honourable way out for him. But there is a downside – and that downside is far, far worse than any form even of no-deal Brexit.
It is Jeremy Corbyn as prime minister.
If Mr Johnson resigns, he would remain Conservative Party leader. That means the Queen could not simply ask another Conservative to become prime minister. She would, almost certainly, have to ask the Leader of the Opposition to take over. All sorts of theories have been put forward as to why this would supposedly be a good thing. The Commons would pass a vote of no confidence in Mr Corbyn and, with no one able to command a majority of MPs, there would finally be an election.
But this is wishful thinking of the worst kind. It completely ignores the nature of the Labour leadership, assuming they are like traditional, mainstream Labour politicians.
LIKE all revolutionaries, once in power they will do anything to remain in power. And as the government, with the apparatus of the state behind them, that is a truly frightening prospect.
For decades before taking over the Labour Party, the likes of John McDonnell and his henchmen and women spoke in favour of violent insurrection and how the truest form of democracy was street action.
The worst irony of this is they will be able to cite Mr Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament as a precedent for whatever action they take to remain in power.
That is just one reason why Mr Johnson’s main priority must be keeping Mr Corbyn out of Downing Street.
‘McDonnell plays Mr Avuncular, but he’s really a hardcore revolutionary’