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October 09, 2007

Comments

tolkein

Well, what did you expect from a Brown government? Every day we see why the PLP in 1994 preferred Blair.

mat

Ha! This is hilarious! It's fun to watch the left squirm!

In Actual Fact

Of course, in the Britain of 2007 are we not all members of the middle classes and above or an underclass that doesn't vote and is therefore politically irrelevant, except when it steals too much from decent, upstanding, etc. etc. citizens?

dearieme

The IHT thing is surely a con in that all it'll do for many people is save themlawyers' fees in setting up a discretionary trust (which might well cost money later when Social Services then pillages their funds or when ill-judged in-laws to loot the children or grandchildren). Anyway, it's probably been so rushed that it might well have to be abandoned e.g. becuase they haven't thought through what to do when the survivor of a married couple remarries: just a guess, but I wouldn't be surprised.

Rob Spear

It's the contradictions implicit in the system of state-driven socialism that doom it. Any state sufficiently powerful to impose anything so anti-human-instinct as an estate tax will also be sufficiently powerful to impose heavy taxes on the poor. It will soon find taxing the poor a more cost effective way of balancing the budget. Ideological concerns may temporarily prevent this decay, but in the long run you have created a predator far worse to the poor than the existence of people with money.

Bob B

What I'd like to know is whether Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, counts as working class because he works for a living?

Mark Wadsworth

I consider myself on the Left, and having taken a good long look at the Big Three and the Greens, I have decided that UKIP is far and away the best (or at least, the least-worst) party.

Neil Harding

Pandering to the press and the wealthy in this way is depressing, but Labour are the only party that is going to bring us PR and real democracy and they have at least applied the brakes to inequality since being elected.

There is no other party for us left wingers. Can't trust the Lib Dems - they swing both ways (no pun intended), the Greens are barmy and as for UKIP being left wing - you are having a laugh! Nigel Farage is a rabid Thatcherite relic and ex Tory MP - no way is he on the left and neither are most of the rest of the EU hating, anti-immigrant, regressive tax supporting members of UKIP.

Gracchi

Chris I have to say that this is one of the most depressing budgets ever. The problem is that every party seems committed to oligarchy- Labour are better than the alternative the Stupid Party in this respect but the movement is towards stupidity and I'm not sure what we do to stop it.

Matthew

But this post ignores political realities. Everyone knows that inheritance tax only affects a tiny proportion of people, yet 71% believe it should be (esentially) abolished. So unfortunately Labour have to go down that route. There's no gain in being right and being out of office.

And given policy suggestions of yours include a lower marginal rate of income tax the richer you are, I'm not sure your view is any better.

Luis Enrique

At a push, I suppose you could defend the IHT move as outmaneuvering the Tories to stay in power and implement more important pro-poor policies ... but then again probably not.

Mark Wadsworth

Neil H, how does doubling the tax-free personal allowance amount to a regressive tax? I am puzzled!

I am reliably informed that UKIP will go for a kind of modified Citizen's Income type welfare scheme that will reduce marginal withdrawal rate on lower earners, is that regressive?

VAT is (allegedly) a regressive tax; but the EU imposes it on us. Which is the only party that intends to be able to do something about it?

BTW, Nigel Farage was in the Tory party for a couple of years in the early 1990s (when in his 20s) he was never a Tory MP AFAIAA.

Matt Munro

Who are "the working class" though ? My plumber earns more than my lawyer.

ManBearPig

But this post ignores political realities.

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