Knowledge plus VAT
AS FOR the taxes on knowledge, I can do no better that to cite a classic judgment: `Taxes on the communications of minds, taxes on the distribution of information and ideas, taxes inimical to freedom of expres- sion. I refer to the Newspaper Stamp Act, repealed in 1855, the Advertisements Duty, remitted in 1853, the Paper Duty, repealed in 1861, and the Security System for news- papers, not abolished until 1869.' This was Mr Justice Wool, reported in A.P.Herbert's Misleading Cases, but no worse an authori- ty for that. Will Mr Clarke bring knowledge back into tax — or set out to decide for himself what knowledge is, or delegate that decision to the Excisemen? Will he care to make the same decisions about books? Now is his chance to secure his place in his- tory, as the first Chancellor of the Exche- quer to tax the word of God.
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