If you voted Leave, would you prefer tax rises or spending cuts in the Autumn statement?

[sorenofthejnaii]

When the public finances are reduced due to lower returns from taxes?

Govt spending is £800 billion. We borrow a bit of that and we have to pay interest - about 3% of what we spend. Given that we have a lower credit rating and that the pound is weaker, that's going to go up.

Still, we don't have to give the EU £8 billion net. Or do we? Because we still don't know what's going to happen about that.

But I fear there will be an economic effect and that will reduce Government income

So you've got a choice:

More austerity? Where will it hit?
Or more tax rises?

What would you like to see?

[SnowBells]

Little Britain

[Millionprammiles]

Snowbells: Boris and Farage will have to feign love for each other in a bid to win public support. Oh wait, that really happened...

[LurkingHusband]

I will be outraged if I have to pay a penny more in tax to support them

Newsflash

You have been all your life.

[SnowBells]

LurkingHusband / Millionprammiles

If precedents have been set already in the UK, we should be able to get a referendum through quite easily. The building of the arena will create jobs, we can sell the TV rights abroad and bring money into the economy, there's merchandising, tourism... and it would definitely beat boring Big Brother...

After their one-year stint at Downing Street, we'll give them one of those dilapidated mansions on Bishops Avenue in London.

[Capricorn76]

I didn't grow up in a nice area and was called a boffin and teased at school for having an interest in education because I wanted a better life. Decades later DH and I are both higher rate tax payers.

The 2 leavers I know did not give a shit about education they wanted to leave school as quickly as possible. Years later they resented wealthier people who could buy homes and foreigners who had more than them. Neither of these women have ever bothered to improve their lives in any way, apparently being English counted as qualifications in their eyes and thus they were entitled to more.

I will be outraged if I have to pay a penny more in tax to support them. Putting up taxes sends the message that work does not pay and will accelerate the brain drain.

This is the reason the leavers want the remainers to get over it, move on and hug it out. They know they fucked up and now want us all to share the pain.

[Saxie007]

Pensioners. They got us here. Sorry, that's the inter generational divide at work.
And armed forces but that should go without saying as spending is a % of GDP and GDP will go down. Annoyingly we might need them more than ever due to the stupid economy tanking and civil unrest.

Shit. How did we get into this mess? David Cameron. I'm looking at you.

[LurkingHusband]

SnowBells

That sounds a little like the suggested pre-Roman system the Celts used - which accounts for the number (and excellent health) of the many bog bodies found all over the British Isles (particularly Ireland).

[Tollygunge]

I voted remain. I would be very happy to pay higher tax rather than punish the poorest of this country further. Unlikely to happen though- remember one of Osbornes first moves was to cut tax for his high earning mates?

[Millionprammiles]

Snowbells - outstanding idea. Lets have a referendum on it. My moneys on Theresa May. Underneath that bluestocking exterior she's Katniss.

[LurkingHusband]

Fine, then we won't buy that essential piece of electronic crap or we'll buy something cheaper (but oh so slightly less cool looking).

Hmmmm, the products of the UK car industry spring to mind.

[SnowBells]

Well... Millionprammiles

I did think that to solve the seemingly perennial squabble in both main parties right now, we should create a Hunger Games arena, throw the Tories, Labour and UKIP (the parties most responsible for the mess we're in) in the arena and let them battle it out.

Whoever wins is PM for a year.

Repeat again next year.

[Bumbledumb]

Raising taxes on the highest earners generally results in a lower tax take - these are the people most likely to be able to bail out of the UK. Sorry, but it really wouldn't be much help.

Then don't raise taxes on earnings. Start raising taxes on wealth instead.

[Millionprammiles]

I'd prefer a major overhaul of tax legislation to prevent global companies getting away with minimal taxation but maximal profits (derived from sales to British residents).
"But they'll put their prices up" I hear you say.
Fine, then we won't buy that essential piece of electronic crap or we'll buy something cheaper (but oh so slightly less cool looking).

On paper I should be anti-benefits (I have nothing to lose from benefit cuts) but I've no desire to turn this country into the Hunger Games and even if I'm cosy in the Capitol I'd still worry about those in District 12.

[SomethingOnce]

Raising taxes on the highest earners generally results in a lower tax take - these are the people most likely to be able to bail out of the UK. Sorry, but it really wouldn't be much help.

This is something that never seems to be unpacked.

Wealthy people, who have some sort of attachment to, in this case, the UK, but make sure it is known that their connection is fragile, and if we ask too much of them they'll take their money elsewhere. No wonder they love freedom of movement.

Making the right noises about ideas around community cohesion, identity politics and so on acts as something of a figleaf for lack of meaningful commitment to fairness in resource allocation.

[SomethingOnce]

Because let's be honest we all know many people work the system

Yes, most very comfortably off people are in a position to get tax advice to 'minimise their liabilities'.

All within the letter of the law, but arguably often not within the spirit. (I realise the tax system doesn't contain a 'spirit' but it is a system we have devised to try to translate our principles into practice).

[UnmentionedElephantDildo]

"there is no reason why they should automatically receive benefits"

They don't. Benefits, such as Pensions Credit, are means tested.

(A pension itself is no more a benefit than an NHS salary is a benefit).

Of course, abolishing the Triple Lock (a Tory policy) is an example of how the solutions might lie with Labour economic plans.

[NiceViper]

Most Leave areas are also Labour areas.

Have the Labour Party any current plans for the economy? Because going by broad demographics, that's the party of the Leavers, and so any Leave economic plan presumably starts with them, as it's their supporters who did it.

[GloriaGaynor]

As did my 78 year old parents Helena, and most of their friends. I'm advocating turning the heating off for the Leave camp.*

[ProfessorPreciseaBug]

I'm with YourPerception... we need to improve infrastructure. And not by wasting money in another ego trip train line.

Every day we waste billions in lost productivity because of traffic jams. Goods not delivered, meetings missed, time simply wasted. At the same time poverty racks swathes of the country. It is always the same story. Places that are hard to reach or get to because of inadequate transport are poor.

There is a Government report done in about 2007 which says roads return a pathetic 400% return after taking account of eveything... Who in their right minds turns down a 400% return in investment?

Build the infrastructure. Create the wealth.. we have money and don't need tax cuts!

[HPFA]

Pensions triple lock must go. This isn't just about Leave, pensioners are no longer the poorest people in our society and there is no reason why they should automatically receive benefits. And please spare me that "we paid taxes all our lives" The young will also have to do that and to receive none of the benefits you received all your lives for those taxes.

[HelenaDove]

My 66 year old DH voted Remain Gloria as did i. (im 43)

[OddBoots]

Given the government already said they would have to remove the triple lock if the vote was leave then the pensioners that voted leave (and I know that is not all of them) already accept that they will have to make a sacrifice for their beliefs.

[LurkingHusband]

I think Belarus may have an idea:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-36643725

When President Alyaksandr Lukashenko urged Belarusians "to get undressed and work till you sweat", there was every reason for his passionate appeal.
After all, the country is experiencing one of the worst economic situations in decades. With the value of the rouble plummeting and rampant unemployment, what else there is to do but to work harder?
But in the days after the president's speech, some Belarusians answered the call perhaps a little more literally than might have been anticipated by Lukashenko - who is informally called Daddy (Batska) by some of his countrymen.
Dozens began posing for pictures at their workplaces well...undressed - and have been posting the images on social media with the hashtag #getnakedandwork (#раздеватьсяиработать).

[Peregrina]

I think that a lot of better off pensioners would actually be quite happy not to get the winter fuel allowance but there is no mechanism for not claiming it once you have claimed your pension.

[GloriaGaynor]

They do need to protect the older pensioners who have only the state pension to live on

Given that two thirds of state pensioners voted to leave (according to Ashcroft's private poll sample), I vote for ditching their winter fuel allowance.