Who broke Britain? Welcome to The i Paper’s opinion series in which experts and writers debate the issues that concern them about modern Britain.
• You won’t know James Bevan, but you should know what he did to this country• Boris Johnson wrecked Britain. But this man left even deeper scars• The hardcore socialist whose ruinous idea is why Liz Truss became PM• The ‘Red Tory’ behind one of the most anti-feminist ideas in British politics• Martin Lewis: the money-saving expert… who accidentally cost Britons billions• The cooking revolutionary who overthrew traditional British dishes• Modern British dating is a car-crash – and Cilla Black is to blame
Of the many bad ideas that have led Britain into its present difficulties, one that stands out is this: that whatever the current tax rate is, you can increase revenues by cutting it.
The most obvious proponents of this in recent history were Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng. In their mini-Budget of 2022 they cut taxes on higher earners (to the tune of £45bn, then about 1.5 per cent of GDP) in the hope that the cuts, and promised supply side reforms, would ultimately pay for themselves. As we know, the financial markets took a different view.
We are still dealing with the consequences of their disastrous decision. But how did they come to make it?
