The Minister has said it: the amount raised from the increase in tax declined because the economy went into relative decline as a result of the Government’s policies. The fact is, however, that all this
is about the feebleness of our tax-collecting system—the laws governing it and HMRC, which has been shown to be soft on big companies, in particular, and soft on the rich when it comes to tax collection. Light-touch regulation: that is the poison.