BRASS TAX
The Guardian Weekly|September 17, 2021
Boris Johnson’s £12bn tax hike to pay for social care has outflanked Labour and confounded his own Conservative party. But with public spending at its highest level in peacetime, will it solve a dilemma that has defeated his predecessors – and even if it does, will the Tories ever forgive him?
Toby Helm and Phillip Inman
BRASS TAX

BORIS JOHNSON appeared, on the surface at least, super-confident as parliament returned last week to tackle the vast backlog of challenges that Covid-19 has left piled high in ministerial in-trays across Whitehall.

On a visit to a care home in east London, the prime minister cheerfully clasped a mug saying Love Social Care before heading to the House of Commons to make a statement on how he proposed to fund the health and care systems out of the crises in which both are mired. But his characteristic ebullience hid a new determination in government, a new calculation.

The aim was to showcase a prime minister determined to govern, lead and finally tackle head-on the issue that his predecessors David Cameron and Theresa May, and Labour prime ministers before them, had ducked or messed up over previous decades. Politically that was one intended message, the other being that Keir Starmer and Labour still had no plan at all.

“This is Boris saying: I can make myself unpopular to get things done, even if that means breaking promises. The intention is to contrast strength and bravery versus weakness and dithering,” said a former Tory minister.

In advance, and after much prebriefing, the idea of a manifestobusting 1.25 percentage point rise in national insurance (NI) for every worker, to pay for a £12bn ($16.6bn) a-year health and care levy – one that would take public spending to its highest level in peacetime and mean a huge expansion of the size of the state – met with much dismay among the many Conservatives committed to low taxes and smaller government.

Denne historien er fra September 17, 2021-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra September 17, 2021-utgaven av The Guardian Weekly.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA THE GUARDIAN WEEKLYSe alt
Putin's Call To De-Dollarise Alarms Some At BRICS Talks
The Guardian Weekly

Putin's Call To De-Dollarise Alarms Some At BRICS Talks

Vladimir Putin opened the expanded Brics summit last month by issuing a call for an alternative international payments system that could prevent the US using the dollar as a political weapon.

time-read
2 mins  |
November 01, 2024
Power in the darkness
The Guardian Weekly

Power in the darkness

Wolf Hall is back. As the extraordinary epic about King Henry VIII and his vengeful entourage edges to a climax, Timothy Spall reveals what it was like to play Cromwell's nemesis

time-read
4 mins  |
November 01, 2024
It's time for Trump's instincts to be called what they are: fascist
The Guardian Weekly

It's time for Trump's instincts to be called what they are: fascist

There is a good chance that on 5 November, Americans will elect the first fascist president of the United States.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 01, 2024
CASTLES IN THE AIR
The Guardian Weekly

CASTLES IN THE AIR

It was meant to be a dream development of mansions in the Turkish hills. But 13 years on, Burj AI Babas is a half-built ghost town, and a microcosm of the scandal-hit construction sector under Erdoğan. Will the buyers ever get to move in?

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 01, 2024
Using cutting-edge methods, Alexandra Morton-Hayward is unravelling the mysteries of grey matter – even as hers betrays her The brain collector
The Guardian Weekly

Using cutting-edge methods, Alexandra Morton-Hayward is unravelling the mysteries of grey matter – even as hers betrays her The brain collector

ALEXANDRA MORTON-HAYWARD, a 35-year-old mortician turned molecular palaeontologist, had been behind the wheel of her rented Vauxhall for five hours, motoring across three countries, when a torrential storm broke loose on the plains of Belgium.

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 01, 2024
Dark times Blackouts spark fears of wider collapse
The Guardian Weekly

Dark times Blackouts spark fears of wider collapse

Maria Elena Cárdenas is 76 and lives in a municipal shelter on Amargura Street in Havana's colonial old town.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 01, 2024
Washington Post sparks fury over decision not to endorse
The Guardian Weekly

Washington Post sparks fury over decision not to endorse

Fury and shock ripped through liberal America last weekend after news that the Washington Post, home of the Watergate scandal exposé, will not endorse Kamala Harris for president.

time-read
2 mins  |
November 01, 2024
The great space waste
The Guardian Weekly

The great space waste

From chaotic collisions to depletion of the ozone layer, the thousands of satellites in orbit around Earth have the potential to wreak havoc

time-read
5 mins  |
November 01, 2024
New heights Teen Sherpa's fight for climbing equality
The Guardian Weekly

New heights Teen Sherpa's fight for climbing equality

Growing up as a sherpa in Nepal, Nima Rinji Sherpa was used to his relatives performing superhuman feats on the mountains.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 01, 2024
Plastic cave made in Spain keeps Amazonian culture alive
The Guardian Weekly

Plastic cave made in Spain keeps Amazonian culture alive

It is not yet dawn in Ulupuwene, an Indigenous village in the Brazilian Amazon, but the Wauja people have already risen to prepare for the festive day ahead.

time-read
3 mins  |
November 01, 2024