Yesterday, Alistair Darling and Lord Mandelson (on Today and Sky News respectively) both used the same phrase to explain their opposition to stopping the National Insurance increase. They both said that it would “take money out of the economy”.
Let’s examine that claim.
1. On what planet is giving money back to the people and the productive sector taking money out of the economy? Even Keynesians accept that taxes take money out of the economy. If Labour really believe that fiscal stimulus can “save the world”, why aren’t they applauding this fine action to stop money leaking out of the economy? Economy comes from the Greek οἰκία, meaning house. The economy is simply every household in the country put together. Put another way, the economy is the people.
2. Moreover, National Insurance is at heart an appallingly inefficient tax on jobs. We have very high unemployment in this country, especially once you take into account all the fiddles used to massage the numbers. What Labour proposed was to make it more expensive to hire people and keep people employed. Tory policy will now save and create jobs. Each of those people who wouldn’t have a job under Labour has income, and pays income tax. Each consumes more, and pay VAT. It’s entirely possible that even the Exchequer will benefit from this.
So, what does this episode tell us about Labour?
a) They are arrogant statists who believe that the Government IS the economy. Labour’s massive expansion of the public sector has made them believe that there’s nothing else out there, or that it doesn’t matter. They are no longer New Labour, willing to tolerate economic freedom for the sake of prosperity. They are now hard left Socialists – they extol central planning, compel private companies to go along with the plan (see the banks) and view the free private sector as a non-entity.
b) They don’t trust people to make their own decisions. People make mistakes – that’s the nature of freedom – but the failures of liberty are eclipsed by the failures of government.
c) They think that people are fools, and will be taken in by a claim that makes no sense even under lefty economics
This is why I am Conservative: I believe that the route to prosperity for all who want to attain it is through a largely unencumbered private sector, with government only intervening where an additional cost to wider society exists. I believe that people spend their own money in a way that’s better for the economy than central planning. I believe in liberty. Labour does not.
Peter Lilley and Edward Leigh did a great job of standing up for Mrs Thatcher. Our own James Winfield Arthur Edward Sharpe III chaired the debate, resplendent in his white tie outfit. 
ifficulties, writing notes to them at times of trouble and showing great courtesy. She would always ask what could the UK do to help whenever she heard of a tragedy anywhere in the world. She was the best boss I ever worked for.
