UK Uncut's Brown Shirts, and a Taxpayer Strike

To be perfectly honest, I don’t know where to begin.

UK Uncut are an organisation whose aim is to make us all pay as much tax as possible to the State. In general, their approach is that it is “fair” for those “who can afford it” to “pay their tax”. It is not clear why sticking to the standard tax codes & laws doesn’t count as “paying your tax”, nor is it clear what a “fair” amount would be.

This suggests that UK Uncut merely have one view, of many possible, on what is fair. I myself have my own views on tax fairness; they differ somewhat from UK Uncut’s, and I follow them as I may and as is my private right. I will point and laugh at UK Uncut’s charitable donations to the State, but it is their right to spend their money this way; they are manifest morons, in my view, but after all it’s their own money. (Leaving aside the question of where their funding comes from – Unions, perhaps? – and whether or not they pay any due tax at all.) But, when they would force, by violence, their own mere opinion on others, then a line is crossed between maintaining differing views into aggressive partisan intimidation, and this is just dumb thuggery.

The purpose, of course, of all this “fairness” whereby more money is granted to the State, is, well, to enlarge the State. I’m fairly sure UK Uncut don’t realise the implications of this – the irony of nominal Anarchists knowingly demanding that that State be strengthened, would be just too much to maintain a protest march with a straight face. However, for me, the bigger point is the gap between UK Uncut’s insistence that the State be funded, and what it is that the State apparently will spend tax revenue on. I bet that every single UK Uncut activist is anti-Trident, anti-free-school, anti-anything-not-on-their-personal-agenda; would you enforce greater funding for these things, o Activists? Or would you demand also that the Government and agenda is changed, to your own? If so, what mandate do you claim? I hope you don’t rely on the manifest lie of Occupy’s “99%”. And even if, somehow, 99% of the population did support your position, then this does not excuse rank robbery. You, and a mob, simply declaring a right to take private property, does not make it acceptable. Or legal. It is, however, the standard Socialist way, and we all know where History tells us that this path leads.

The Socialist way itself, has a dubious record of honesty and logic when it comes to brass tacks of tax. Guido Fawkes maintains an excellent broadside against the Graun, where the difference between the editorial line on tax avoidance and the editorial-supporting finances in the Caymans is so hypocritical as to be basically incomprehensible. (It’s quite a good effort in terms of outright tax avoidance though, and I applaud it.) But of course, leftist tax optimisation serves a greater and noble purpose than do the affairs of the common man; I’m sure UK Uncut feel that anything is justified in the pursuit of their own personal agenda, be it the violence of themselves, or the behaviour of those who share their views. This may turn out to be particularly painfully visited on those Starbucks employees who will suffer loss of money and conditions to cover UK Uncut’s demands; Anna Raccoon has summarised the basic economics.

I wonder also how many of these UK Uncut activists protested the Poll Tax. Leaving aside their first excuse of it all being wicked Thatcher’s fault, we’re left either with simple logical errors (“Pay less tax!” “Pay more tax!”), or with the position that UK Uncut simply demand that others do as they say. Similarly, there is the apparently-acceptable use of tax to disincentivise, say, smoking; if tax may be used as a stick, then why would UK Uncut offer it also as a carrot of optional extra donations to HMRC?

Anyway – enough. Enough of this UK Uncut BS. I expect that the obvious idiocy of their current effort will eat itself in the end – usually a scandal in Labour’s finances is enough, and/or the Graun will soon be bust, perhaps the EU will fail sooner than we may hope. But something has changed. This whole UK Uncut position is so blindingly stupid that I fear we must actively fight back – and I am not alone, the good Captain has summarised his views here, as has Old Holborn.

So join us. Join the Taxpayer Strike. Do it for your own situation, do it for the cheeeldren, do it against the State – but also do it for the sheer reasonableness.

T.