It is a truism in British politics that the Conservatives are the party of low tax while Labour does the spending. But an Ipsos poll for the Standard reveals that Labour has overtaken the Tories as the best party for tax by 32 to 25 per cent, a reversal since December 2019.
It is not difficult to see why this might be. In the last few weeks the Chancellor has raised National Insurance and, as we revealed yesterday, is set to drag hundreds of thousands of Londoners into the higher rate of income with his freezing of thresholds. Meanwhile, energy companies enjoying vast profits have thus far avoided a windfall tax.
At the same time, households are seeing their weekly budgets exhausted by rising energy bills, food prices and rents. Little wonder two-thirds of voters said the cost of living was their main issue ahead of the local elections.
The Prime Minister’s recent response to the cost of living crisis — to look around the Cabinet table asking colleagues for non-fiscal (i.e. free) ideas does not suggest the Government is getting as tight a grip on the problem as it might.
In contrast, Labour has built a firmer economic platform since the uncosted and unrealistic days of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, and in Rachel Reeves has a credible shadow chancellor.
As partygate rattles on in the background, the Tories have given the impression of taking their eye off bread and butter issues such as tax and bills. And credibility once lost is hard to recover.
UN faces a crisis
It is unlikely to have been a coincidence that Russian shells hit Kyiv while the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, was visiting the city. It was an action by one of the members of the UN Security Council against the UN’s head which crystallises the problem with the organisation.
In his conference in the city, Mr Guterres made clear his own dissatisfaction with the Security Council: “Let me be very clear. [It] failed to do everything in its power to prevent and end this war.”
The five permanent members represent roughly the balance of global power when the UN was established in 1945 after the Second World War, with the purpose of maintaining international peace and security. This is why Britain and France are members as well as the US, Russia and China.
There has always been a problem with their power of veto, namely, what happens when the UN seeks to censure an action by one of them? Right now, Russia and China are among those most likely to incur censure, especially Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
Alongside suing for peace in Ukraine, the responsible members of the UN must employ imagination and determination to address the problem whereby a rogue international actor can destabilise the world order with impunity.
Welcome back Koko
It has been delayed by a fire and a pandemic, but Koko — Camden’s iconic music venue — is back.
The 120-year-old venue has undergone a £70 million development and will be blasted back to life tonight by Arcade Fire, the latest evidence that London’s social scene is returning to its fighting weight after on-and-off lockdowns.
Koko is legendary. It has a glorious history and now an even brighter future.
