Should taxpayers have more say about where tax income is spent?
If there is one thing we have seen over the last 12 months it is the fact that billions upon billions of taxpayer's money has been spent on the banking sector with many other areas of the economy effectively neglected. It has shown how the government is in total control over how your tax income is spent and how debt can build up in order to fund various investment programmes and rescue packages.
However, while it would be nice in theory for UK taxpayers to have more say over how their money is spent, in practice this is just not possible. The reason we have general elections in the UK is to appoint governments who will oversee how UK income tax and other income is invested back into the economy and society, so in effect a general election is your chance to pick the best "paymaster" for the next four years.
In reality there is no way that every voter in UK will ever agree with every move by the UK government, whether a supporter of a particular party or not. The political party which will be more successful is the one which can catch the eye of the largest number of voters and be seen to have done "a good job". Whether Gordon Brown and the Labour Party will be able to turn around the UK economy before the general election is open to debate because ultimately we could look back in a year's time and applaud the investment which Gordon Brown has made, or he could be slated, but it would be too late!
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