Thatcher's tax cutter. (Nigel Lawson) (editorial)

Economist (US), The, March, 1988

HIGH expectations are almost bound to be disappointed, so it is easy to carp about some of the details in the budget presented by Nigel Lawson on Tuesday. The chancellor should have been bolder about extending the scope of value-added tax; braver about raising excise duties on alcohol; clearer about the role of national-insurance contributions, taxes by another name. Yet history will say these are quibbles. Only two things in the budget really matter for Britain's long-term future. One is the decision to run a budget surplus in the next financial year, with a balanced budget as the routine goal. The other is to have only two rates of income tax (25% and 40%) where previously there had been six (running from 27% up to 60%).

These two changes are more, much more,...

Read the rest of this article with a Free Trial at HighBeam Research.

Premium Content Partnership | HighBeam Research provides an in-depth online archive library of reference works.