This war on affluence is nothing less than a war on prosperity and on
Britain’s whole economic future.
Melanie Phillips
Melanie Phillips
IT’S THAT SEASON
AGAIN. The one which follows when politicians accumulate frightening amounts of debt through too much
spending and borrowing. At such times the ‘rich’[1]
are targeted to pay for the latest episode of political recklessness; and at
such times the rich citizen is demonized by rich politicians[2],
and ways are found to make them pay more than their fair share of taxes. The
rich are an easy target in a country where class envy has flourished since the
19th century and continues to this day within the Liberal Democrat
half of the Coalition – no wonder Nick Clegg has been in talks with the Labour
Party over cohabitation in the event of another hung parliament in 2015.
Already the top 10 per cent of
earners pay 53 percent of the tax intake to the exchequer; while that evil City
of London contributes £20 billion. Yet more is needed so property will now be
brought into the firing line; anyone owning a £1million property will be
presumed a tax-dodger, and the so-called Affluence
Unit will investigate, by trawling through people’s financial records to
hopefully make a few more pips squeak.
The Affluence Unit (yes it really does
exist) sounds like a 17th century creation of Cromwell’s puritans,
and will behave as such. Only a Labour Party conference circa 1978-1985 would
come up with such a body: now it appears David Cameron (2012) has allowed this sinister sounding body to be
created and sent forth to do its nefarious work.
Tax avoidance is perfectly
legitimate, and if PAYE tax contributors were in a position to do so, would
themselves pursue such legal means of keeping more of what they earn; and
keeping it as far away from the politicians as they could in the knowledge that
by handing it over, the politicians would spend, spend, spend, to their hearts
content knowing, as they do, that billions have already been wasted on defence procurement,
computer systems, Quangos, and a compendium of other forms of spending that
have been brought to the attention of, and investigated by, numerous parliamentary
Select Committees over the years.
Politicians, when it comes to the
people’s taxes are given to spraying them like confetti at a wedding. As it is
not their money, it is not their loss: and if they mess up, there is always the
rich to cover their losses. Politicians know what buttons to press to get us
plebs excited; and attacking the rich, and milking them for all they are worth,
will prove popular. Which, after all, is what every politician craves.
Every pound of every billion spent
in the public sector arrives via the private sector – the wealth creating
sector is, in other words, the farm that produces the crops. Wealth creation
has produced the following: the NHS, education, defence, oversees aid, and
every other department of the state’s budget. It has done so by creating wealth
and paying the wages of employees, all of whom, including the company itself,
pour billions of pounds annually into the exchequer’s coffers for the
politicians to spray about in such an anarchic manner.
THERE ARE SOME
three million tax payers earning £50,000 per year (which is the base income for
the 10 per cent Clegg has targeted for increasing taxation). These include many
teachers, high ranking nurses and army officers. These groups are presumed to
be of sufficient wealth to be described as wealthy by Nick Clegg. They will be
expected to pay extra in taxes, thus narrowing the gap between themselves and
those under them who will escape the Cameron/Clegg spite.
As the wealth gap between public
sector ‘master’ and ‘servant’ narrows; we can expect the unions representing
those in the public sector on £50,000 to demand an increase to continue the pay-gap,
thus incurring ever larger amounts of taxes from those working in the private
sector.
A
BODY CALLED THE ‘AFFLUENCE UNIT’ would have no place in a truly Conservative administration: but it
is alive and well within the Coalition. In the years to come political
historians will scratch their heads in bewilderment at this creation; which is
prepared to persecute those who have had the ambition, drive and intellect to
create their own wealth and create employment in the process: only to see it so
ill-treated by politicians who feed the
prejudices of their constituents in order to remain popular.
The
Affluence Unit sounds evil to all those other than socialists or communists, all of whom would
regard it as eminently sensible. Under the banner of ‘Fare Taxation’, this
liberal coterie of a coalition has brought discredit to the word fare. Fare?
Why? Because it demands more from the rich? Why is this fare when they already
contribute to well over 50 per cent of the collectable tax income?
Affluence
represents prosperity and material comfort for the vast majority in a North
Western European democratic society. But the word becomes synonymous with evil
when used as a means of tracking down wealth as if its existence were a
blasphemy.
Clegg should give up on this idea
before it comes back to haunt him. It may not rank with the euro in terms of sheer
stupidity; but remember, Clegg still supports the euro, which should tell you
something about the man’s judgement, as well as his ability to construct
policy.
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