[West Ender]

It's unworkable if the country is to remain solvent. Put 45% VAT on non-essentials, white goods etc., and the less well-off can't afford them and won't buy them. Put 22% VAT on essential goods, food etc., and the less well-off and the indolent become ill-nourished and a potential drain on the already ill-funded NHS.

The revenue could not be recouped to the extent that it is by Income Tax so all the public services suffer - notwithstanding the "massive" (in fact reducing to ludicrously small figures and potential chaos) amount of people which presently helps maintain the coffers being "put on the dole" but with little money in the Exchequer with which to pay the said "dole". You might also bear in mind that the front-line officer in revenue collection earns, on average, much less than the badly-paid nurse in the NHS whose wages that officer's work provides the wherewithall to pay.

No one likes being taxed, I certainly don't, but of all the imperfect systems available Income Tax is the fairest and the most workable. That there are anomalies within the system is not denied, nor that the highest paid do better out of the deal than the lowest but that is the result of Government legislation and the only weapon against that is the vote - in theory.