Labour’s pathetic response to Treasury’s flat tax proposal has come in for some well deserved criticism over at No Right Turn, and I have to agree it’s a pretty basic failure on Labour’s part.
Faced with a reactionary and regressive proposal that amounts to a full-frontal attack on their founding values and the people they are supposed to stand for, the only criticism Annette King could muster was that Labour:
“… was opposed to a flat tax because it raised questions about what other taxes would have to be raised to cover expenses.”
As No Right Turn puts it:
Yes, that’s it. They oppose Treasury’s ideas for massive tax cuts for the rich not because it is a direct attack on progressive taxation, the idea that those who can afford it should pay more not because its just bloody unfair, but because it “raises questions” about what other taxes would have to be raised to compensate. If this sort of pallid technocratic managerialism is the best the modern Labour party can bloody do, then I’m left wondering why anyone would bother to vote for them.
Scathing, but true. Labour is not going to lift itself out of its rut unless it picks up its act and gives people a reason to start voting for it. Seriously, why would you bother with this insipid, largely invisible bunch?
But unlike No Right Turn, I don’t put this down to Labour no longer caring about fairness. I think they’re just genuinely a little bit sh1t, and this isn’t the only example.
Take ACC. Nick Smith is busy manufacturing a crisis and Labour is nowhere to be seen. It took David Parker three whole days to even get a press release out, by which time the narrative had already been set. As well as failing the people who rely on them to protect public services, Labour is failing to even counter the brand damage being thrown its way by National. Inexcusable.
As for Phil Goff, I haven’t seen or heard from him in weeks. Apparently he’s in America or something, but who’d know? I talked to my grandparents the other day, they said they’d seen Goff on telly once or twice, “didn’t he have something to do with some Indian woman a while back?”.
What more can I say? It’s no wonder they’re on 28%.
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