I was depressed to read a column by Tim Montgomerie in this morning's Times (££), rehashing all the old arguments for a mansion tax. Depressing because he's supposed to be a conservative and, as such, shouldn't be defending aggressive redistributive taxation.
He points out that the rich in this country are getting richer, but fails to mention they're also paying a higher percentage of total income tax revenues than at any point in the past. HMRC estimated that the UK's 275,000 highest income earners paid £41.4 billion in tax in the last financial year – 25.7 per cent of the country's total income tax bill. This is in contrast to 1978, when the top one per cent paid 11 per cent of all tax revenues. (To read more, click here.)
.@StephenTwigg What do you think about school in Oldham being set up by British Muslim soldier? @CllrJimMcMahon has condemned it as "tripe" (3 hours ago)
