Tax Justice UK seem to have a problem with numbers

Or perhaps it is logic that’s escaping them. We’re told that their focus groups produce the information that everyone’s entirely willing to pay more tax to gain more of that lovely state goodness. Which is a bit of a problem for the other major work of Tax Justice UK, complaining about how many people dodge too much of the bill for lovely state goodness. But let us leave that little difficulty aside.

We all all for more tax they say. Except:

According to our research, 74% of people want to see the wealthy taxed more, including 64% of Conservative voters. The proportion of Conservatives who said they were personally prepared to pay more tax went up from 41% in March to 46% in June. Conservative backing for an increase in corporation tax leaped from 61% to 74% over the same period.

Ah, no, you see that’s a minority in favour of paying more tax. It’s a majority in favour of other people paying more tax. Which really isn’t the same thing at all, is it?

As ever the answer depends upon the specific question asked. “Would you pay more tax to fund diversity advisers?” gains a different answer from “Should he, over there, pay more tax to fund you?”