TPA more “out of touch” than the Archbishop

Dr-Rowan-Williams The Express today carries a quote from the Tax Payers Alliance (TPA) accusing the Archbishop of Canterbury of being “out of touch” after he called for increased green taxation to gear the economy towards a more sustainable path.

Susie Squire, the political director of the TPA, said:

“The Archbishop is showing yet again how out of touch he is with the British taxpaying public.”

But as Left Foot Forward reported yesterday, there is clear poll evidence showing support for higher green taxes.

• 57 per cent would support “new taxes on air travel with the aim of reducing the number of flights people take.”

• 68 per cent would support “much higher taxes on cars that use a lot of petrol and emit a lot of carbon dioxide.”

The evidence suggests it’s the TPA that are out of touch.

And last month Left Foot Forward reported that:

• There was substantial support in principle for green taxes – 51 per cent support versus 32 per cent opposition.

• There was a significant increase in support if revenue was to be hypothecated to be spent on projects to directly reduce carbon dioxide emissions – support rose to 73 per cent and opposition fell to 17 per cent.

• Support for green taxes rose even higher if other taxes were to be reduced at the same time. Support was 77 per cent in favour versus 9 per cent in opposition.

http://twitter.com/andrewsparrow/status/5794928956 AndrewSparrow

RT @leftfootfwd: Taxpayers’ Alliance more out of touch with “taxpaying public” with than the Archbishop of Canterbury:- http://is.gd/4X2L9
http://twitter.com/shamikdas/status/5794933982 Shamik Das

RT @leftfootfwd: Taxpayers’ Alliance more out of touch with “the British taxpaying public” than the Archbishop: http://is.gd/4X2L9 @othertpa
http://twitter.com/estellehart/status/5794949166 Estelle Hart

RT @leftfootfwd: Taxpayers’ Alliance more out of touch with “British taxpaying public” than the Archbishop of Canterbury: http://is.gd/4X2L9
http://twitter.com/othertpa/status/5794958807 Clifford Singer

RT @leftfootfwd: Taxpayers’ Alliance more out of touch with British taxpaying public” than the Archbishop http://is.gd/4X2L9
http://twitter.com/dnotice/status/5795015401 Gareth Winchester

RT @OtherTPA @leftfootfwd Taxpayers’ Alliance more out of touch with British taxpaying public than ArchbishopofCanterbury http://is.gd/4X2L9
http://www.taxpayersalliance.com TPA

Joss,

The questions the Times put to their readers include all sorts of relative judgements like “use a lot of petrol”. When that is translated into actual measures, which hit ordinary family cars – as the Government’s Vehicle Excise Duty changes have for example, that support tends to turn into opposition. Equally, theoretical questions about green taxes substituting for other sources of revenue are pretty irrelevant when the public, correctly, see green taxes as a device to increase revenue instead of reducing emissions.

For a more even handed analysis of the public’s attitude to green policy, take a look at YouGov’s poll for the Economist, page 20 of this PDF:
http://www.yougov.co.uk/extranets/ygarchives/content/pdf/UK%20US%20topline%20comparison.pdf

It finds net opposition to higher taxes on petrol, airline fares or to subsidise “clean energy” such as solar power and wind farms. The only policy to see net support was building more nuclear power stations.

Apart from that, with regard to the above story, the Archbishop was advocating higher taxes as a means of redistribution, he was not talking specifically about green taxes in the story we were asked to comment on.

Best,
Matt
http://twitter.com/t_i_b/status/5795808746 T_i_B

RT @leftfootfwd Taxpayers’ Alliance more out of touch with British taxpaying public than Archbishop of Canterbury http://is.gd/4X2L9 #TPA
http://twitter.com/jamesasser/status/5795842439 James Asser

RT @leftfootfwd Taxpayers’ Alliance more out of touch with “British taxpaying public” than the Archbishop of Canterbury http://is.gd/4X2L9
http://www.leftfootforward.org Will Straw

Hi Matt,

Thanks for engaging. I haven’t seen the Times/Populus raw figures so don’t know what the questions were – do you know where to find it, by the way?

That aside, two points:

1) I was at the TUC event yesterday and Rowan Williams gave a complicated answer to a question from Richard Murphy (covered on his blog: http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2009/11/17/rowan-williams-on-tax/). Williams was essentially talking about what economists call substitution and income effects.

2) Green taxes should, in my view, seek substitution from bads (pollution) to goods (cleaner energy, etc). Of course it will raise money (income) if society doesnt switch but that’s a natural part of a well designed tax system. I don’t see why you’re cynical about that point. As the Green Fiscal Commission found, there is clear public support for this.

All the best,

Will
http://www.leftfootforward.org/2009/11/look-left-the-week-in-fast-forward-20-11-09/ Look Left – The Week in Fast Forward | Left Foot Forward

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