The Iconoclast FEB 2018

JOSH BOUGHTON debunks Labour’s policies
Jeremy Corbyn, a modest, unassuming
man who wears opennecked
shirts and slacks has
been in the centre of the political
spotlight for the past year or so.
Corbyn became the Labour party
leader in 2015 after the resignation
of Ed Miliband.
Mr Miliband went into the 2015
general election with policies
including a freeze on fuel bills
and a "mansion tax" on homes
worth over £1m, and the polls
showed Labour and the Tories
neck and neck.
However, the result came out as
another Tory government leading
to the rise of “Corbynmania”.
I have to give credit to Corbyn
for gaining so much significant
support especially from the
younger generation on his new
policies that claim to be ‘for the
many, not the few... ‘
Idealistic policies
But, how realistic are these policies-
can they be achieved? How
is he going to fund this vision? It
will be fine- he will just slam the
wealthy on tax rises, or just renationalise
the railways or perhaps
even just slash £19.4b from
firms via corporation tax. Surely
that won't do any harm, will it? I
have my doubts…
University Fees
JEREMY CORBYN, LEADER OF THE LABOUR PARTY
Let’s look into the scrapping of
student tuition fees for university.
I think we would all agree
that the abolition of tuition fees
would be a great thing- no student
debts to worry about; no
pressure on finances; it would
reduce the social discrimination
of students who cannot afford
the fees. However, where would
we get the finances from? To
fund 550,000 students a year
entering higher education accumulating
to £51 billion a year…
Wait, Corbyn’s got an idea- we
can tax the top 5% of earners
even more than the 45% threshold
on income tax. It doesn’t
work like that…
Taxing the rich won’t work
Slamming the rich with even
more tax will simply just result
in them shifting their money offshore,
resulting in lower tax receipts
than in the first place.
This is called the Laffer curve.
This leads on to your families
disposable income being
squeezed due to income tax
hikes from the Labour Party.
So imagine- you’re now out of
university, all funded by the government
(due to no tuition fees);
you’re very happy now because
you now don’t have the burden
of student debt on you as the
government have paid it for you,
and suddenly down comes your
tax payments to the government
- 10% more than last time leading
to huge cutbacks on consumer
spending, slashing GDP to its
lowest point and reducing disposable
incomes across the nation.
Corbyn is very critical of the current
government’s weak productivity
levels blaming it to be the
sole cause of weak UK GDP, and
in some ways, I agree, but at
least the Tories are doing
something about it