“Populism is rising across the West”

Mar 10, 2018 | Politics

Tags: Populism
An independent (financial adviser’s) view

The thing is, if you elect what is now known as a ‘populist’, expect populist policies. You’ll find out what a populist policy is if you spend any time in the back of a London cab or in pubs with large TVs on the wall and/or Nigel Farage propping up the bar.

For instance, everyone’s buying Mercs instead of Fords; so make Mercs 25% more expensive, and they’ll all buy Fords instead. Or, send home all the immigrants and there’ll be more jobs/houses/room in A&E for everyone else.

Funnily enough, both have been tried before and both had unintended consequences. But, no doubt, both will be tried again and guess what…

“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

“Rachel Reeves may be forced to raise taxes”

Why did she/they (in the old sense) think that tinkering around with IHT and CGT would be enough to sort out the NHS; and the potholes; and…and the list goes on. My guess is  that they asked the Treasury for a list of anything not involving income tax that they could get away with lightly, although they should already have learned from the winter fuel stuff that all publicity is not good publicity.