Personally I didn't mention Social security, I know the attitude to people claiming benefits from those not on them in the UK
I was thinking of the problems in local gov. spending where the central grant has radically decreased, the problems in police spending with far fewer front line officers, the problem in the courts system which is having major impacts there.
The bit about "going along with it" was primarily about the corporation tax cuts.
Those cut revenue and don't directly help citizens (unless you believe in trickle down economics!). A more rational approach would be to want lower personal taxes surely?
They think this can be achieved be being more efficient (all the newspaper articles about NHS wastage and middle managers), and spending less money on things they don't want (overseas aid is a common example.) So the two things aren't necessarily at odds.
> unless you believe in trickle down economics!
I think a lot of people do.
> A more rational approach would be to want lower personal taxes surely?
I think a lot of British people see a large successful business as a virtuous success story, and so want them 'punished' less with less taxes.
(I'm not saying any of this is my opinion, but it's definitely what a lot of people here think.)
I'd say that kind of attitude is common in the US, but less so in the UK.
Albeit I'm seeing things from a Scottish rather than English perspective, but I've not seen an appetite for lower company taxes..
My guess for continued support of this kind of policy is that people think other things are more important (e.g. brexit) + tribalism in voting habits (we've always voted that way round here) + of course the terminally broken FPTP voting system.
the only close example I can think of in the UK is the higher rate income tax band bit and that turned out to be clever accountants banking on the fact that a change in gov. would lower the rate so they time shifted income into the period where it was lower...
I don't think they're 'going along with it' - you're making it sound like they don't know what they want.
UK society doesn't have much of an anti-government movement like in the US, but low taxation and leaner governance is a pretty common, mainstream preference here. I think if you speak to a diverse group of voters in the UK you will find a lot of support for austerity and low taxation.
It's not even a Conservative thing! See my sibling comment for an example.
The NHS is a strong outlier in people's preference for extra funding. Child education is another. But for social security? I think the appetite in the UK is less than you think it is.