Stephen Drill: High-taxing left wing policies don’t win votes
They may play well on Twitter and Buzzfeed but in the real world the high taxing, hard left wing policies don’t win votes, writes Stephen Drill
They may play well on Twitter and Buzzfeed but in the real world the high taxing, hard left wing policies don’t win votes.
That’s the verdict now three times over.
Bill Shorten, Hillary Clinton and Jeremy Corbyn all learned that the hard way.
And once again, the polls got it wrong again – disproving the saying that a broken clock is right twice a day.
Boris Johnson’s positive message is on track to win a landslide majority, while Scott Morrison surprised everyone in the media with his victory in May.
And while Donald Trump is not Justin Trudeau’s favourite person, and Greta Thunberg doesn’t like him, unemployment in the US is at a 50-year low.
Don’t be surprised if he’s given a second term on a lower taxes policy.
What is stunning is that no-one in the Labour Party in the UK, the ALP in Australia and the Democrats have worked it out.
Or if some have, the shrieking from the squeaky wheels has drowned out sensible centre politicians.
And if they want to tackle climate change, they cannot do it from opposition benches.
Interestingly, Johnson is on board the climate train, promising for the UK to be carbon neutral by 2050.
Even the conservative leaning newspapers in the UK supported that pledge with headlines like Vote Blue, Go Green.
Perhaps all that time staffers spent at Cambridge, Yale or University of Sydney would have been better spent down the local fish and chip shop on a Friday night actually talking to real people rather than retweeting their mates.
Jeremy Corbyn wanted to hike a string of taxes, including the inheritance tax that would stop most people passing on their family home to their children.
Bill Shorten was caught in a tricky online campaign accused him of trying to bring that in during the last campaign.
The ALP was in a glass house if it was to complain about the Liberals’ tactics following their Mediscare campaign that almost toppled Tony Abbott.
He was planning to hit some pensioners’ dividends though, and it cost him the election.
The echo chamber of social media has amplified opinions, and thrown measured debate in the bin like a used tissue.
The predicted Johnson win means that Labour will be out of power for 14 years in the UK.
It’s a pattern that will keep going unless progressive parties move towards the centre.
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