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There is currently a lot of anger by the general public directed towards the political classes of all parties over expenses or this or that but my personal feeling is that this is very deep seated and a belated reaction to a Government that by increasing degrees over a decade, just hasn’t been listening to us on planet UK.

We live on this planet, they don’t but regardless have to return to our one before they can continue further and there is a general frustration that means they are all in line for a good “kicking”. This frustration shows itself in many forms but inept politicians like Gordon Brown trying to capture this mood with a 50p top tax rate on rich people, is silly, he has already lost the game by being totally deaf and stupid and to be fair, should call an election this very day.

Gordon is Indeed a Moron

Gordon Brown trumpeted himself as a great Chancellor and the weak minded Media went along with this for most of the time Labour was in power, whilst to most sensible people by 2001/2002 it became obvious that he didn’t have a clue. To give a surfing analogy, he was riding the wave whilst at the same time claiming to have created it which was total bollocks.

The last Budget did absolutely nothing which in my book comes down to this Government abrogating all responsibility for doing what they are being paid to do and therefore if they had a scrap of honour or integrity, would call a General Election right now but, as they haven’t they will not of course.

But that said there is a classic “exposition” as to how both sides can get it terribly wrong but in doing so, demonstrate just how far out of control and able to deal correct outcomes they are,for Brown it must be the 50p tax rate.

The 50p Tax

I don’t care a fig for the whines of the wealthy but this 50p was done as a purely political gesture to try and trip Cameron up by getting him to declare he would….and to try to shore up the left wing of the Labour Party by saying…”We will soak the rich” and without any regard to the consequences of such a policy.

The 40/40/40 top rate on Income, Capital Gains and Inheritance Tax was a stroke of sheer genius because it created a technical baseline. In the name of fairness and common sense, there will always have to be exceptions and exemptions below that line eg. If the main asset under IHT was a family business employing x people and levying the full 40% would see it closed down…etc However, in a complicated world it created a “default tax base”.

If Brown Really Cared…

As in everything he has touched, Brown has made a pig’s ear out of income tax by doing this with the aim of leaving the Tories a poisoned chalice as toxic as the one he will leave the next Leader of the Labour Party, he is clearly a very spiteful person of very little intellect just a bag of emotions. One has to wonder if in stepping aside, Tony Blair knew full well that Brown would destroy the Labour Party.

We really need to focus on the reality here, the big yielding taxes are Basic Rate Tax, NI and VAT, Brown was not at all interested in fairness, he never has been, if he had, this is what would have happened:

Tax/NI Threshold raised to £10,000, basic rate tax increased, VAT put up to 18% immediately with a projected rise to 20% in the near future. Cuts in Public Spending and the introduction of job sharing in Public Sector jobs, where possible rather than sacking people outright.

An Amusing Aside

Well I suppose that if you post similar ideas such as these on the “Independent”, you will either get the Lex Luthers of the Left or the namby pamby’s from the centre complete with herbal tea. I got some dump head who supported the 50p tax rate and….whatever but this was broadly my reply:

“To me a Bigger/Smaller society, is not really relevant, self interest in terms of a smaller more efficient State, is in the interests of all and even more so at the bottom end or on the margins of society. As Harringay Council has proved fatally twice now with young children, big government always fails to protect the weakest in society.

As for the burden falling on people on lower incomes of which I am one, it was ever so and always will be, it is the foolishness of the chattering muddle classes to suggest that it is ever going to be any different, it is a numbers game. And if you don’t get the point, try this:

The Real Cost

Whether at the Somme or in Helmand Province today, the vast majority of those who do the fighting and the dying are from the lower income or working class. Want more proof ? Right now it looks as though because employment opportunities are less, the Armed Forces may well reach their recruitment targets easily.

Just as there are few Officers compared to the Other Ranks, there are fewer rich people and more not so rich so who gets to pay, who gets to fight and die most ?

Just like an Army of Officers would be far too few to win a battle, so too an Army of Rich People can’t put this most profligate Governments financial mess right. Look at the logic over the Banks, why rescue them if they just belonged to rich people ? Think it through and don’t waste your time putting forward the failed philosophies of the Left.

As to when Thatcher got the top rate down to where it was is an irrelevancy, the fact that the main taxes that impact the wealthy became synchronised at 40 percent thus at a stroke, closing countless legitimate avoidance opportunities for the wealthy, their Lawyers and Accountants, was. Unfortunately your mate Gordon for no practical advantage to you, me or the Country, has just buggered it up again – so it is still total nonsense. “

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