Trade Unions

Part of Orders of the Day — Finance Bill – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 June 1974.

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Photo of Mr Nigel Lawson Mr Nigel Lawson , Blaby 12:00, 19 June 1974

The second ground advanced by the Government to justify the retrospection in this clause is the argument that, whereas it may be wicked to increase anyone's tax burden, it cannot be wicked to reduce it retrospectively. That distinction is manifest nonsense. The Government require a sum of money in taxation revenue, and a retrospective reduction for some means a retrospective increase for other taxpayers, however thinly spread it may be. It is true that hitherto there have always been retrospective increases in taxation against which this Committee has had to guard itself. But I cannot recall a case in which we have faced a proposal for a retrospective reduction in the tax burden of a group of people at the community's expense.

The question to which we have to address ourselves is why, in this case, the Government have seen fit to do it and why, uniquely, the trade unions are to be the beneficiaries of this largesse. Incidentally, many unions, if they get the money, will put it straight into their general funds simply because they do not have separate provident funds.