Tuesday
Apr222008
No taxation without representation?
Tuesday, April 22, 2008 On The Free Society blog today Robin Butler asks, does this government have a moral right to collect a tobacco tax from people it is trying to airbrush out of society? Smokers, he adds, are not represented by government, so why should they pay an additional £10 billion a year on top of income tax and National Insurance?
If there was ever a social contract, guaranteeing personal freedoms as a condition of meeting our social responsibilities and duties as citizens, then in the case of many millions of citizens, the state has just torn up its part of that contract.
Full article HERE.
Reader Comments (3)
Since when was this, or any other government for that matter, concerned with any rights, never mind moral rights - unless they directly affected them (the government)? They may bullshit about rights when wanting to be elected, but once in situ they forget all about the ordinary people they left behind with all the empty promises!
I think that the recent ruling by a court that a manifesto pledge is not binding so seriously undermines the democratic process. How can the electorate possibly make an informed choice knowing that none of the "commitments" need be met? As you say, Lyn, if a pledge is not legally binding our politicians will not consider that there is a moral obligation to honour it..
For the first time last night I saw a TV ad for the TVLA. It has a distinctly sinister, threatening tone, not that of a Government that engages respectfully with its electorate as one would expect if there were a "social contract". The ad, in no uncertain terms, informs us that the Government is, in effect, using surveillance to enforce compliance. Anyone who considers biometric ID to be A Good Thing must be out of their minds.