Douglas Carswell's Blog

It is not just the Budget that's changing

What do you notice about this year's Budget? 

Obviously quite a lot of it has changed.  Ever since George Osborne unveiled his 2012 Budget on March 21st, he has been forced to abandon bits of it.  First the pasty tax, then the caravan tax, then the church tax and the charity tax.  Now the 3p fuel increase has been shelved, too.

I can't help noticing that the bits of the Budget that have been ditched were all proposals to raise taxes.  Those measures the Chancellor unveiled to cut taxes - 50p rate or cuts in corporation tax - have survived unscathed.

Might we be seeing something rather interesting starting to happen?  Are we witnessing a revitalised Commons doing what it is supposed to do and holding the executive to account?  MPs starting to say "No, minister. You cannot have that money"?

I suspect that the government changed its mind about the 3p tax rise at the last minute because they realised at the last minute that they were heading for a Commons defeat.

Budget day speeches shouldn't simply be fait accompli announcements of what ministers are going to do with our money.  They ought instead have to haggled over it with the taxpayers' representatives. 

Since the 1930s, when the then Coalition government changed the rules to prevent MPs having any real say over tax and spend decisions, the Commons has tended to merely rubber-stamp what the Treasury decided.  Taxes went up.  Government got big.

A more assertive House of Commons will mean lower taxes and less government - whichever party happens to provide the Chancellor. 

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