In the weary discussion leading up to last Wednesday’s budget, much was made of the fact that the current level of taxation is at its “highest level since 1948” (Budget 2024, 6 March). I have seen no mention of the fact that the taxes then were designed to benefit the whole population through the Attlee government’s establishment of a different way of running a country.
Poor people would, for the first time, have access to the benefits of a modern welfare state: health, social care, education and libraries, all free at the point of use, and new standards of housing at modest cost. It’s sad that our national debate now is narrowly mean-minded.
