So, yes, it will cost a lot to give all those strikers and others decent, or at least cost-of-living pay rises. But there’s a silver lining/sting in the tail, depending whether you’re the government or a now-better-paid worker. The freezing of tax allowances means that many who never dreamed of entering the elite ranks of high rate taxpayers will find themselves returning some of their hard-won extra pay as extra tax. I’d guess the books would rebalance fairly quickly, if nothing changes in the meantime. Noone who’s not a high rate taxpayer has much sympathy for those that are, and a future government anywhere to the left of the current bunch isn’t going to do much to reverse things. The same is true of the other stealthy rises/freezes in Inheritance, Capital Gains and Dividend tax, where the plan is the same, to pick our pockets, in the words of Mr Scrooge, rather more than once a year, and without us realising. Or so they think.
“Chancellor scraps 45p income tax change in ‘embarrassing’ U-turn”
I wish this U-turn had been for the right, or for even vaguely altruistic reasons. For instance, ‘we’re using those funds to pay for a bit of social care and free-up some hospital beds, treat refugees vaguely humanely and triple-lock increases to benefits as well as pensions’.
