Those who took a foreign holiday this Easter may have whiled away the hours in the departure lounge by studying the small print of their booking – in particular the bit detailing the extortionate taxes attached to the cost of their flights. It’s always a cough-splutter moment (and air passenger duty has gone up by a further eight per cent this month).
Yet it’s not just the hidden costs of a holiday. Families know that wherever they turn, they are paying more, and will continue to do so. The Budget might have attracted derision for reducing the top rate of tax, but its actual message was the opposite: one of perpetually rising taxes, stretching far into the future. The fiscal challenge facing this Government, and those that will follow it, gets tougher, not easier. Indeed, we should ask ourselves why so many of our politicians find it easy to get exercised about tax cuts that are marginal in fiscal terms, when they should be steaming about how taxes are rising relentlessly for those on middle incomes, who form the backbone of the economy.
