People do like the idea of paying less tax - don't we all? - but if savings are found, people would rather see the money put into front line services than handed out in tax-cut.

It also finds that people are less swayed by the economic arguments about tax cuts than over other arguments. Those are the arguments that Tories are most passionate about and are therefore likely to have their impact softened.

Any Tories rejoicing over the results and thinking that it's evidence that people will turn to them are in for a rude awakening.

The Taxpayers Alliance is a Tory front.

We should concentrate on fighting for good public services and making the case for their funding.

If that meant an increase in taxes then so be it.

Let's not let the middlebrow loony right papers make our policies any more shall we?

To expand on my initial post; the TPA poll uses a number of loaded questions and it is therefore not surprising that it generates the answers it does. It is also not a good idea to put too much wait on relatively detailed responses from a single poll - for example, the apparently surprising finding that Inheritance Tax is the second most unpopular tax needs to be seen in teh context of a recent campaign by one tabloid against it and the controversy surrounding Steven Byer's statement, which togehter have raised the profile of this particular tax.

What I believe the poll does show very effectively is that there could be an effective negative campaign around tax issues linked to an 'anti-politics' agenda which used key languages and messages effectively. It also suggests that these arguments cut across supporters of all parties and most socio-economic classes.

Fortunately, the Tories under Cameron at the moment do not seem to be particularly well-placed to take advantage of this, and there are strong responses open to Labour; but we do need to be doing much more to emphasise the added value that has been achieved already through extra investment in public service, and to think about how we address the perception of wide-spread waste and mismanagement in public spending.

Although many of the Taxpayers Alliance questions are tilted, I think that using that as an excuse to bury our heads in the sand would be a mistake.  People are interested in the level of tax, and the level of spend - its not either/or - and we have to talk about both.  That doesn't mean we have to cave in and accept tax cuts across the board, but it does mean we accept people are worried about how much they pay in, and more importantly, what it is actually used for.  

The other thing to note is that the TPA is not a Tory front.  It is funded and run by right wingers, but the best analogy would be to say that the TPA is the right's Labour Representation Committee.  I don't think anyone would accuse LRC of being a Labour front organisation!