On his globe-trotting tour of photo-calls with fellow world leaders, Gordon Brown outlined a Franco-British plan to cut taxes on ‘green goods’. (Seethis story on the Labour Party website.)
Certainly, the idea of tax breaks to encourage ‘good’ behaviour – rather than tax rises to discourage ‘bad’ behaviour – is one which will appeal to fiscal Conservatives and free-marketeers. Whilst even hardened tax-cutters can see the reason for levies on such vices as cigarettes and alcohol, it is hard to understand the rationale by which VAT was added to bicycles and home-improving insulation in the first place – let alone why it persists at a time when political leaders are exhorting us to change our behaviour in the name of the environment.
Whilst welcoming the proposals, however, we should be wary of that very appeal. Judging by his political sleights of hand since he assumed the premiership, Gordon Brown is very keen to ensnare voters of a centre-right disposition. It is a great credit to the way David Cameron has pushed green issues to the top of the political agenda since he became Leader of the Opposition that Mr. Brown feels the need to make green policies one of the centre-pieces of his first weeks in office. Let it not be forgotten that this is the man who, as Chancellor, made precious few speeches about the environment, and even fewer moves to protect it. But his proposals with President Sarkozy are calculated to be gentler and more palatable to floating voters than punitive taxes on ‘non-green’ behaviour.
The announcement is glossy and vague, of course, and there is much scope for us to seize the initiative by answering the many questions that it leaves hanging in the air. (Exactly which products should have their VAT cut? What really constitutes the difference between an ‘environmentally friendly’ fridge and its less desirable alternative? How much revenue will be lost by these cuts, and how can that be afforded?)
But the important point remains: Gordon Brown’s acknowledgement that it is possible to be simultaneously green and Conservative. We should be congratulating him on both counts.
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