[guide.chat] bedroom tax is not a tax
- From: vanessa <qwerty1234567a@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: "GUIDE CHAT" <guide.chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 14 Mar 2013 03:46:44 -0000
The 'bedroom tax' is the new great lie of the Left and the BBC. How on earth
can a small welfare cut be a tax?
The first rule of political propaganda is that if you repeat a plausible slogan
enough times, and it goes unchallenged, it will eventually be widely believed.
So it has proved with the so-called 'bedroom tax'. Invented by an obscure
crossbench peer called Lord Best, seized upon by the Labour Party and magnified
by the BBC, the emotive phrase has generally been accepted as proof of this
Government's wicked treatment of the poor.
Indeed, until I looked into the matter I found myself thinking that this time
the normally admirable Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, had
gone too far. Such is the power of effective propaganda.
Neither Mr Duncan Smith nor anyone else from the Department of Work and
Pensions appeared to mount a defence on Newsnight against the many calumnies
about a 'bedroom tax'
But, of course, the bedroom tax is not a tax at all. A tax is a levy imposed by
the State on the earnings of an individual or a company, or it is added to
certain purchased goods. The 'bedroom tax' is a deduction in benefit, and is
essentially voluntary.
From next month, if you are a council or housing association tenant, and in
receipt of housing benefit, you will lose 14 per cent of your benefit if you
have one unoccupied bedroom and 25 per cent if you have two.
The first purpose of the measure is to free up under-occupied flats or houses -
in which, for example, a middle-aged couple may have one or two empty spare
rooms - so that families which have need of those rooms can move in. The change
applies only to those on housing benefit.
The BBC has aided Labour in recirculating the slogan 'bedroom tax' a thousand
times so that many people have come to believe it
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, said the Coalition's proposal to cap
benefit increases at one per cent a year for three years would propel many
children into poverty
There is also a potential saving to the enormous £23?billion-a-year cost of
housing benefit of about half a billion pounds, or just over two per cent of
the budget. An ever-growing number of people - the elderly, the disabled,
foster parents, those with children away fighting for the Forces - will be
exempt.
Even so, there is no denying it is a tough measure. Moving out of a property
you have occupied for years is obviously far from ideal. Nor is losing part of
your benefit if you elect to stay put.
But the Government's justification is that there will be a greater use of
unoccupied bedrooms, as well as a relatively small, though welcome, saving in
the overall welfare budget, which stands at some £200?billion.
It would be refreshing if Labour could attack 'bedroom tax' without
misrepresenting it
Perhaps one shouldn't quarrel too much with Ed Miliband and the Labour Party
for banging on about the 'bedroom tax'. Most politicians lie. It would be
refreshing if Labour could attack this measure without misrepresenting it, but
political debate is seldom honest.
But I do quarrel with the BBC for its incessant and unquestioning repetition of
the phrase 'bedroom tax'. To describe it thus is intentionally to make it sound
nasty and cruel. Mr Miliband's motives are self-evident, but the BBC is
supposed to be fair and even-handed.
The Corporation has not only aided Labour in recirculating the slogan a
thousand times so that many people have come to believe it. Again and again, it
also parades unfortunate people who are said to be prospective victims of a
monstrous new tax.
The notion that many families not on welfare don't have the luxury of a spare
room, and may have to have one or two people in every bedroom, is foreign to
the head-in-the-clouds types that proliferate at the BBC.
Equally, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, opined at the weekend
that the Coalition's proposal to cap benefit increases at one per cent a year
for three years would propel many children into poverty. The trouble is that he
didn't say how else the Government could save £2?billion a year.
The same applies to the BBC over its demonisation of the 'bedroom tax' and its
insinuation that ministers relish punishing the poor. How easy to sneer at
every attempt to make savings in a welfare budget that rose by 60 per cent in
real terms in the first decade of this century under Labour.
What would these critics do instead? It seems not to occur to them that Britain
is a poorer country than it was five years ago. They are oblivious to our
ever-growing debt, which is expected to increase from £1,000?billion when the
Coalition took over in 2010 to £1,600?billion by the next election in 2015.
And they are also apparently unaware that, despite all the hue and cry over
cuts, public expenditure is projected to rise from £696?billion in 2010-11 to
£744?billion in 2015. As things are going - ie badly - it will almost certainly
be a lot more.
Let's not just blame Labour and the BBC, though. The Government has been
hopeless at defending itself against the slogan of a 'bedroom tax', as it has
almost always been deficient at countering accusations that it is in love with
austerity.
Of course, it daren't say the truth - which is that the cuts in public spending
so far have been pretty marginal, and the reduction of a quarter of the deficit
has been achieved mostly through tax increases rather than decreases in
expenditure. It is being hung, drawn and quartered every day by the BBC for a
'crime' it has not committed.
But it could and should fight back more robustly over the charge of a 'bedroom
tax'. Aside from some expostulations by David Cameron during Prime Minister's
Questions, its argument has barely been put, which is why most people believe
Labour and the BBC.
On Tuesday evening, neither Mr Duncan Smith nor anyone else from the Department
of Work and Pensions could be lured out of their bunker to mount a defence on
BBC2's Newsnight against the many calumnies about a 'bedroom tax'.
What kind of lunacy is this? For all his great gifts - he is doing more to
reform the welfare system than any man since William Beveridge - Mr Duncan
Smith is not a born communicator. The Government needs a heavyweight champion
to tour the studios and take apart the lies that are being thrown at it.
Speaking of which, why can't some minister eviscerate Labour for falsely
claiming that the Coalition is imposing a 'bedroom tax' while bringing in a
'tax cut for millionaires'? It is reducing the top rate of tax from 50p to 45p
on earnings over £150,000, which is still a higher rate than that which applied
throughout 13 years of Labour rule apart from the last few weeks.
Needless to say, I'm glad the Government has just exempted more vulnerable
people from its proposals over housing benefit, though I wish it had done so
earlier, and not in a reactive way that seems to smack of panic.
I also wish that Britain were a rich enough country for those on housing
benefit not to have to move into smaller properties. But we aren't. We're a
country in economic crisis with a Government that is berated over every attempt
to shave small percentages off an unaffordable welfare budget.
This is not a nasty Government, though it may be an incompetent one. Where is
the minister to nail the lie? The 'bedroom tax' is not a bedroom tax. It may be
regrettable, but it can't be avoided.
from
Vanessa The Google Girl.
my skype name is rainbowstar123
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