Thumbs down for Brown - poll shock

BRITONS pay too much tax, get too little back in the way of decent public services and are firmly against any more tax rises. That's the conclusion of an exclusive snap poll of This is Money readers this week. According to the survey, 81% of you feel you pay too much tax against just 13% who feel that the amount of tax levied is 'about right'.

The bad news for the Chancellor, who has made much of his spending commitments to health and education is that 82% of respondents say they do not get a good level of public services for the amount of tax they pay. Huge sums of public money have been ploughed into the education system and the National Health Service and while the Government says that people who have experienced either speak highly of the them, the perception of improvement has yet to filter through to the population at large.

But if the findings of the This is Money survey are bad news for the Chancellor, they aren't great news for the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats.

In a clear rebuff to political parties who have been coming up with innovative vote-catching initiatives, This is Money's readers have given an emphatic thumbs down to two new political initiatives.

Well over half of the survey's respondents described the Liberal Democrats' plan to levy a new 50p tax band on those earning over £100,000 as a bad idea. 58% of you rejected the LibDems' new tax plan while just 21% described it as a good idea ? another 21% were unsure.

Labour's recent announcement that they would seek to increase maternity leave to a full 12 months was seen as a brave, bold move that would capture the public imagination. It may have grabbed a few headlines but the evidence suggests that This is Money readers are less than enamoured. Almost two thirds (64%) of respondents to our poll say that the idea is a bad one with just 22% welcoming the initiative.

Perhaps the most damning verdict on Gordon Brown's tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer is the fact that almost a third (29%) of respondents think his Conservative opposite number would do better in the job. Just 25% of respondents plumped for Brown while 23% were unsure. The bad news for the Liberal Democrats was that just 1% of respondents believe their Treasury spokesman, Vincent Cable, would make a good Chancellor.

This is Money's Budget survey was completed by 477 adults across the UK this week. Because of the nature of the online poll its findings may not be representative of public opinion.