I would have thought any rational individual would believe that the less cash the state lifts from our pockets the better. That way they’d have to be more careful with how they spend it and their capacity to waste it would be constrained. It would also mean we would keep more of what we earned, to spend as we see fit.
Such an approach goes against the unspoken credo of the progressive clerisy, that the state knows best in all things and that everything belongs to the state. Taxation, even of the most egregious kind, is elevated to the status of an unimpeachable Virtue, irrespective of how much of it may be wasted (because, of course, it’s always meant for more hospitals, schools, teachers, nurses, roads, police, etc.).
As for Mr Gauke, he’s no doubt happy that his fifteen minutes is up as the Olympic spectacle drives everything else out of view – and especially happy now it’s been revealed he once worked for an accountancy firm that advised on tax “efficiency” (avoidance, to you and me). Nemesis averted, perhaps.