The U.K.'s Shadow Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has won plaudits from an unlikely source for taking a tough line on taxation after she pledged that the Labour Party would not introduce a wealth tax if it forms a government following the next British election.
U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican from Iowa, said in a post on social media on Friday that America’s Democratic Party should “wake up and take a cue” from Reeves.
“She is for wealth creation. She feels u don’t tax ur way out [of economic problems]. U grow ur way out,” he wrote, adding that the British opposition’s policies are “very Reaganesque.”
In an interview with the Telegraph last weekend, Reeves ruled out introducing a levy on accumulated wealth or owned properties despite calls from some on the left of the party to back more radical solutions to the cost of living crisis.
She also confirmed a decision to shelve plans to raise the top rate of personal income tax from 45 pence on the pound, as Labour shifts onto a campaign footing ahead of parliamentary elections expected next year.
The move, which Reeves said she hopes will ensure support from wealthier voters and secure investment from business, has drawn ire from supporters of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. Left-wing pressure group Momentum described the policy shift as “shameful” and “a political choice to favour big business and the 1 percent over ordinary people.”
Grassley, an 89-year-old conservative Republican, has consistently opposed higher taxation in the U.S. and pushed for repealing the estate tax on inherited assets, as well as backed looser gun-control laws and states’ rights to ban abortions.
He’s not wrong.
Our “left”, instead of functioning as an opposition, is nothing more than a bunch of neoliberals looking out for their own careers and to defend the status quo.
It’s pathetic and depressing.
It really does look like this. Without competent voter reform, we are looking down the barrel of the circle jerk. The Tories will make a return in the future, and they will have learned the lessons of the past. We may not escape them a second time.
well put unfortunately…
Even with voter reform (which I doubt we’ll ever get, but still), especially if it comes from either one of the current capitalist parties, the system is never going to work in our favour, it’s designed not to, and “reforming” it will be in appearances only.
Just look at the energy and resources they spent discrediting Corbyn and then purging the party, and he and his peers are probably the mildest of socialists, but the status quo does not respond well to threats.
There is no escape when our only choice is between red capitalist and blue capitalist, they both play for the same team, and it isn’t us.
Media reform is in the interests of Labour. I could see this one changing in the next parliament, but we will have to wait and see. As has been well reported, Starmer met with Murdoch. If he panders to the Murdoch narrative then that is an extremely bad sign for UK politics. FPTP has produced a gravy train, and money follows money where ever it may go. It will be an uphill battle.