New Zealand tax cuts

Was gobsmacked to read that some sense is due to finally be shown by New Labour this week: I didn't think that a call to tax the rich was one I'd hear from our boys in New Labour, but here it is.  

It may be a joke, of course - bit of Guardian wit - but let's treat it as fact for today. If Darling delivers, it will be fascinating to see how the notion of tax increases catches on, and how it works - and if raising taxes for earners in the £150,000+ bracket can be a vote-winner. I mean - let's face it, people. If the 'tax a rich wanker banker' card was ever going to play, now would be the time to play it. And okay - these increases will deliver wall-to-wall fuck-all in terms of real money: but as Dave Osler observes, there is something to be said for the symbolism.

It certainly worked in New Zealand for many years, and - although that economy was and is strikingly different from the UK's, a few parallels can be drawn.

So let's draw them. Let's talk about tax increases as a reality and look at an example where increases didn't lead to a party's electoral death. 

New Zealand's Labour party won the 1999 general election on the strength of a Helen Clark and (finance minister) Michael Cullen pledge to a Taxation (Tax Rate Increase) Act: the charismatic and clever Cullen introduced the bill for its first reading in December of the very same year.