The Government of U-Turns

The government has performed a U-turn once again on the budget, this time it is on the “pasty tax” and the caravan tax. Originally the government intended to extend VAT to pasties, sausage rolls and other cold food sold in bakeries. This type of food is eaten by many working class people at lunch and helped to re-enforce the image that the government, particularly George Osborne and David Cameron, are out of touch with the public. The proposed caravan tax didn’t help either, originally the government had intended to introduce VAT at 20% on static caravans (ones that do not move), this got strong opposition from Tory backbenchers, the caravan building industry and holiday makers. They claimed that introducing the tax could have cost up to 7000 jobs whilst again re-enforcing the image that the government was out of touch as people who could afford to buy a holiday home wouldn’t have to pay tax, whereas those who could only afford a caravan would have to pay tax. Now the government has decided to introduce VAT at only 5%.

The U-turns have been praised by the Tory backbenchers, but the issue has still damaged the government. The image after the budget is still going to be one of an out of touch government unable to understand the ordinary people. The U-turn isn’t the government’s first either, the coalition has performed many of them in their first two years in office and likely there will be many more. Every U-turn makes the government seem weak and possessing no sense of direction.

There are other unpopular measures in the budget, the “granny tax” and the tax cut for the wealthy. The budget from Hell and the recent return to recession is why Labour has managed to gain an eight point lead over the Conservatives. Although this does not mean that Labour can gloat just yet, it’s a long time until the next general election.