Most of the rich politicians in Britain, says the Times, are Tories as you would expect. Lord Ashcroft (worth £1,200m) leads the field, pharmaceutical magnate Lord Balleymond next (worth £860m), followed by the Marquess of Salisbury (275m) at no 4, and Lord Heseltine (£264m) no 5. However, rather surprisingly (or perhaps not after 13 years [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Super-rich’
Unequal wealth – the best illustration ever
Mar 5th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.This film will take just six minutes of your life. It is a fantastic illustration of just how unfair is the distribution of wealth. Not only is there a massive gap between the way people think things are and the way they think they should be (left and right alike), but there is an even bigger gap [...]
Top pay for those who decide the pay of the top paid
Mar 4th, 2013 by Jon Lansman.In Britain last year, pay rose on average by 1.9%, says Income Data Services. That is of course, in real terms, not a rise at all, but a pay cut of 0.7%. The pay of the bosses of Britain’s top companies which employ a very large number of us, the Chairmen of FTSE 100 companies, [...]
75% tax on rich rejected – a censure for François Hollande’s policies of pretence
Jan 10th, 2013 by Tom Gill.(translated from the original by Jacques Sapir) The measure considered to be one of the most emblematic of the promises of François Hollande on tax, the famous 75% rate for people on incomes of over €1 million, was rejected Saturday, December 29 by France’s Constitutional Council. The “Wise Men”of the council, to be clear, were [...]
Reduced spending power is what could finish this government
Aug 2nd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Real personal disposable income is arguably the most important index of economic welfare. When families’ disposable income is going up, even if by only a little, there is broad, even if only minimal, contentment. But when it starts to go down, especially if the trend continues to go down for any significant length of time, [...]
To consolidate its lead Labour now needs to correct 3 major mistakes
Jul 23rd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.With business leaders, even the director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, now slamming Osborne’s policy for indecision, equivocation, short-termism and political manipulation, Labour must now be poised to take a decisive lead in the crucial area of economic policy. But if it is going to consolidate a lead which at present is much [...]
Why is there not a wealth tax in the UK?
Jul 8th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.So President Hollande is increasing taxes on the super-rich, banks and big businesses this year by €7.2bn, about £5.7bn, and also making those with more than €1.3m pay a one-off levy this year. It is wildly popular with the French electorate, with three-quarters approving the squeeze on the rich, including a majority of right-wingers. In [...]
Making the punishment fit the crime for Tory donors
Jun 14th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.We have always known that this was a government of the rich, by the rich, for the rich. But a striking confirmation of this has come from research by the GMB drawing on data from the Electoral Commission and the Register of Members’ Interests. It shows that a quarter of the 1,000 ultra-rich persons in [...]
FTSE-100 chief execs down to their last £92,308 a week
Jun 13th, 2012 by Michael Meacher.Another story for ‘We’re all in it together’. A survey just published by Manifest/MM&K has found that the average pay of chief executives of FTSE-100 companies is now £4.m millions a year , just under £100,000 a week (though that threshold will probably be crossed next year). The average pay in their remuneration – salary, [...]
Glencore-Xstrata shenanigans show corporate managerial power out of control
Jun 3rd, 2012 by Michael Meacher.The joint stock company, the foundation unit of modern capitalism, is dead. But corporate managerial capitalism is alive and kicking. Whatever the constitutional theory that shareholders are in ultimate control, this myth is daily confounded by repeated evidence of management takeover from the inside. Shareholdings have become so remote and so fragmented, and the tentacles [...]
