The Labour Party and Taxation: Party Identity and Political Purpose in Twentieth-Century Britain

by Richard Whiting

• ISBN13: 9780521571609
• ISBN10: 052157160X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2001-01-29
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This is a political history of Labour’s use of the tax system from 1906 to 1979: an epilogue brings the story up to the present, surveying New Labour’s tax policies and dilemmas. Richard Whiting’s broad-ranging, lucid and readable study examines how Labour used tax to further its political aims of funding welfare, managing the economy, promoting fairness and achieving greater equality. Whiting also shows the limits of Labour’s ability to achieve a more equal society in this way, assesses the ability and standing of key figures in the Labour movement, and delineates the problems caused by the political role of the trade unions. This study provides an original perspective on Labour’s history, and is a valuable contribution to understanding both the tax structure and the politics of twentieth-century Britain more generally.

Table of Contents

List of tables	ix
Acknowledgements	x
List of abbreviations	xiii
Introduction: Taxation and political debate	1	(7)
Struggles within a liberal inheritance, 1906-1940	8	(53)
Labour and Liberals before 1914	10	(6)
The impact of war on the tax environment	16	(7)
The national debt, expert opinion and Labour's tax strategy	23	(11)
The surtax, social spending and party division	34	(8)
Snowden and the middle classes	42	(8)
Keynes, Labour and the onset of war	50	(2)
The `culture' of tax politics	52	(9)
The changing balance of tax interests, 1940-1954	61	(69)
The rich	67	(16)
Taxation and industry	83	(7)
The people	90	(15)
Taxation and the party	105	(6)
The Conservative response	111	(11)
Taking stock	122	(8)
The Kaldor era, 1951-1965	130	(43)
Tax isssues of the 1950s	132	(10)
Labour's policy-making in opposition	142	(6)
Socialism and taxation	148	(5)
The impact of the Conservatives	153	(6)
The 1965 budget	159	(9)
Assessment	168	(5)
Social democracy examined, 1950-1970	173	(41)
Ecomomic and social policy analyses	174	(5)
Redistribution	179	(16)
Tax reform	195	(10)
Local government finance	205	(3)
Economic management and tax administration	208	(6)
Defensive positions, 1970-1979	214	(45)
Opposition, 1970-1974	217	(15)
Democracy and tax policy, 1974-1979	232	(14)
Public expenditure, taxation and the trade union presence	246	(10)
Change	256	(3)
Epilogue: New Labour, old problems?	259	(10)
Conclusion	269	(5)
Select bibliography	274	(13)
Index	287