Newton's Optic: Beyond parody In lieu of his usual column Newton Emerson this week offers the following excerpts from current Sinn Féin policy documents without further comment [Do I still have to pay him - Ed?]:
It has been clearly shown that the private and public banking companies have at times been active participants in systematic tax fraud.
- from the 2002 Sinn Féin pre-budget submission
When it comes to formulating tax policy there has been one question that successive governments have been afraid to ask. Who is paying tax and more importantly who isn't?
- from the 2003 Sinn Féin pre-budget submission
We need more inventive and positive ways of using the massive financial resources of the Irish banking sector.
- from the 2004 Sinn Féin pre-budget submission
It is essential to reform and re-weigh the taxation system in favour of the low paid and to increase the overall tax take by targeting wealth, speculative property and corporate profits. Measures should include:
End tax avoidance schemes.
Measured increase in Corporation Tax and increased Capital Gains Tax for owners of multiple residential properties.
Create a 50 per cent tax band for incomes in excess of €100,000.
- from the 2005 Sinn Féin pre-budget submission
Creating new businesses and helping existing ones grow does not happen in a vacuum. It comes about in the context of the supply of skilled workers with access to transport.
- from the 2002 Sinn Féin general election manifesto
Communities have often formed their own new co-operatives, local currency networks, social enterprise and development projects.
- from the 2001 Sinn Féin policy review Breaking the Cycle
There is widespread recognition throughout Irish society of the need to invest in the new communications technologies.
- from the 2001 Sinn Féin Westminster election manifesto
Private property has been and remains an instrument of oppression of people the world over.
- from the 2003 Sinn Féin submission to the Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution
Sinn Féin proposes a tax on international financial speculation, with revenue to be used to promote development in the poorer regions of the world.
- from the 2002 Sinn Féin pre-budget submission
Sinn Féin believes that community economic regeneration and the partnership concept can act as catalysts for genuine socio-economic change if they are premised upon an ethos of inclusion and the principle of sustainable development at a local level.
- from the 1998 Sinn Féin policy overview Putting People First
Incineration and all attempts to impose incineration on communities against their will to be opposed.
- from the 2004 Sinn Féin local government manifesto
Poverty is a by-product of domination of the needs of profit over the needs of people.
- from the 2004 Sinn Féin discussion paper Eliminating Poverty
Society will pay greater costs in the future for the "free money" the politicians seek today.
- from the 2003 Sinn Féin policy document on private finance initiatives
We have a taxation system riven with systematic inequality, where vested interests are pampered and protected.
- from the 2002 Sinn Féin election document Building a Just Economy
It is to the continuing shame of recent governments that a large section of our high-income individuals have been able to pay tax at rates which are effectively below those of even the (lower) standard rate.
- from the 2002 Sinn Féin general election manifesto
Tax "loopholes" are indicative of the dominant culture of tax avoidance in which wealthy individuals and companies have grown accustomed to paying less than their fair share.
- from the 2002 Sinn Féin general election manifesto
Sinn Féin proposes to address both legal avoidance and illegal tax evasion as a high priority, confident in the knowledge that closing these gaps and effectively policing tax compliance will result in a dramatic increase in receipts taken.
- from the 2002 Sinn Féin general election manifesto
A rural investment bank needs to be set up that offers low-interest loans.
- from the 1998 Sinn Féin policy overview Putting People First
Everyone should have a meaningful role to play in developing the economy, particularly at a local level.
- from the 1997 Sinn Féin submission to the multi-party talks
The EU Council still meets and takes decisions in secret, without transparency or accountability
- from the 2004 Sinn Féin European election manifesto
Our view is that those who run the media should run it in public, and not behind closed doors.
- from the 2002 Sinn Féin general election manifesto
Government shall be accountable to the people and be based on openness, transparency and effective freedom of information legislation.
- from the 2004 Sinn Féin discussion document Rights for All
Newton Emerson is editor of the satirical website portadownnews.com