An interesting observation made in today's FT: opponents of the Lisbon Treaty (sorry, EU Constitution), both on the Left and on the Right, are arguing that it will threaten Ireland's 12.5 per cent corporation tax regime.
Leave aside for the moment the extremely important argument about whether the EU Constitution or the proposed Common Corporate Tax Base will lead to harmonisation of corporate tax rates in Europe. The interesting point here is that the Left in Ireland are defending low taxes on business. Now why would they do that?
The fact is that the benefits of low business taxes for Ireland's economy and hence for ordinary people in Ireland are clear, even to the Left. If only politicians could be that clear in Britain, then companies would not be leaving because of our increasingly uncompetitive business tax regime.