There has been a general view among British historians that popular opposition to tax increased dramatically in the 1970s. However, no study has looked in detail at the available evidence. This view has been based largely on politicians’ statements and a few isolated studies from the 1980s, most of which did not focus on Britain specifically. This thesis attempts to construct a more detailed picture of the development of popular attitudes to tax in Britain c1945 to 1992.

To do this it first examines the available quantitative evidence, variable and unreliable as much of it is before the 1980s and draws some cautious conclusions about how this suggests popular attitudes to tax developed. The following chapters look at discussions in the major national newspapers and political magazines, two main political parties, the civil service, Trades Union Congress, and Federation of British Industries, later Confederation of British Industry, in a series of case studies. These focus on moments when tax was a particularly high-profile issue: the 1949 budget and 1950 election; the 1959 election and 1961 budget; the 1964 election and 1965 budget, the late 1960s and 1970 election; the late 1970s and 1979 election; and the 1987 and 1992 elections.

The findings do not indicate that opposition increased significantly in the 1970s. On the contrary, the quantitative evidence suggests that popular opposition to taxation was consistently at a relatively low level throughout the period studied, potentially even decreasing through the 1980s, when the evidence is more methodologically reliable. Similarly, although there is evidence that some Labour politicians, in particular, were slightly more concerned about opposition to tax from the 1970s onwards, they were also convinced of opposition in the 1940s and 1950s, supposedly the high point of popular support for high taxation. Even in 1992, the evidence indicates that most Labour politicians remained convinced that perceptions of fairness in taxation were crucial and that support for public spending was also extensive.

The views expressed by Labour and Conservative politicians’ during the 1980s indicate that they did not think at that time that popular opposition to tax had increased unprecedentedly in the 1970s. Instead, that idea first appeared in the press in 1987, becoming pervasive by 1992. Among the various organisations studied here, the research therefore indicates that this idea of opposition to tax increasing in the 1970s was found initially only among journalists in the late 1980s and early 1990s – and that it was circulated without supporting evidence.