On 21 June, I wrote this paragraph in a post entitled The Beginning of a Regional Tax Policy?
Yet it is undoubtedly a good decision, because the UK has a much greater inequality of wealth between its richest and poorest parts than any other EU member, as we can see on this map. As I have said on many occasions, this is a structural problem with the UK economy (indeed the UK as a whole, for over-centralization of the economy goes hand-in-hand with political over-centralization) and therefore needs to be addressed in more radical ways than have been attempted up to now. This will be the first time—so far as I'm aware—that different tax rules will apply to different regions of the UK. It will be a ground-breaking departure from previous policy.
On 23 June, Russell Lawson of the Federation of Small Businesses wrote this on a post on Wales Home:
Certainly the mechanism of applying the NI holiday to only some of the nations and regions of the UK is a significant policy. On the one hand the UK has a much greater inequality of wealth between its richest and poorest parts than any other EU member which this is a structural problem with the UK economy and therefore needs to be addressed in more radical ways than have been attempted up to now. This will be the first time that different tax rules will apply to different regions of the UK, and is therefore a ground-breaking departure from previous policy.
His next paragraph was this:
On the other hand, however, businesspeople in one of those regions in the south east corner of England might well be pretty angry that the new party in power had gone back on its election promise ("any new business will pay no Employers National Insurance on the first ten employees it hires during its first year," Conservative Party manifesto).
My preceding paragraph had been:
If I were a Tory businessman in one of those regions in the south east corner of England, I might well be pretty angry that my party had not only gone back on its promise, but done so in a selective, arbitrary way.
And before that I had quoted the relevant line from the Tory manifesto.
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I learned some years ago not to be upset when someone takes your ideas and presents them as their own. Though when that happens I normally expect the idea to be presented back to me in slightly different words. On the contrary, I welcome it as a sign that the person not only agrees, but has taken the idea on board for themselves.
The reason I blog is to try and give others good ideas. So I'm delighted that Russell agrees with me on this matter. I wonder if he agrees with me on other things? Perhaps we should exchange a few emails.
