Councillor Tom Smith recently gave full vent to DUP ‘little-Ulster’ nationalism, in a letter supposedly critiquing the government's economic policy and accusing it of conspiring to benefit the rich, by removing the 50p tax band. Anyone with an ounce of concern for the UK’s national finances realises that the current government has steered our economy away from disaster with its prompt action to tackle the deficit.
We need only look to the ailing countries of the eurozone to see what happens when governments refuse to take action on spiralling debts. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the US administration’s failure to get its spending under control has caused its credit rating to be downgraded, with calamitous implications for its economy.
Thank goodness the UK government has taken a more responsible approach. George Osborne cut public spending, while protecting important public services and maintaining the 50% tax rate for higher earners, which Labour introduced.
The 50% band was always intended to be a temporary measure and there is mounting evidence that it could act as a disincentive to growth, as the economy recovers. Councillor Smith may have missed the latest report from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which suggests that the higher rate currently raises no extra money for the Treasury at all.
Although no decision has yet been taken to scrap the 50% band, the Chancellor has a duty to weigh up all the arguments with an eye to maximising growth, which will create jobs and prosperity for everyone in the UK. In the meantime we must continue to pay down the deficit, rather than burden our children and grand-children with enormous debts incurred by the previous government.
Northern Ireland is quite properly being asked to do its bit, but we’ve been protected from the worst cuts by a very favourable settlement on our block grant, in no small part due to the efforts of the Secretary of State. Conservatives in government have also resolved the PMS crisis, saved the coast-guard in Bangor and are driving initiatives to grow our local economy. This is a government which listens carefully to Northern Ireland and is determined to deliver for the people here.
Even some of Councillor Smith’s DUP colleagues, in their more lucid moments, recognise that the UK needs to bring spending under control in order to tackle the legacy of debt left by Labour. Rather than taking a parochial approach he should applaud the government for keeping the economy on the right track, which ultimately will benefit everyone in Northern Ireland and in the UK as a whole.