To give a tax break to people on more than £150,000 a year when the rest of the population, and above all the bottom half, are on the rack for a decade of austerity takes some doing. It shows more acidly than anything else could the sheer psychopathic mania of the ruling Tory elite for relentlessly squeezing the mass of the people in order to consolidate the power and wealth of a miniscule set of the ultra-rich. Continue reading
Tagged with Equality
Tax cuts for the rich, benefit cuts & eviction for the poor
If Osborne wanted to be as provocative as possible (which he probably does, to appease the Tory right, his future backers for the leadership), he could hardly put together a more incendiary mix than cutting tax rates for the ultra-rich in the budget and then, 2 weeks later, impose swingeing cuts on some of the poorest families in the country.
On 6 April working couples around the country on £18,000 a year (or £346 a week, just three-quarters of the average wage) will lose £77 a week. These families contain nearly half a million children, and their income is being cut by more than a fifth. Continue reading
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50p income tax? The rich should count their blessings
Of course the 50p top rate of income is more important for its symbolism than its efficacy. The free market right should stop griping and thank their lucky stars that the last Labour government lacked the political courage required to reintroduce genuinely progressive taxation.
If only they would count their blessings instead of counting their money, they would realise that the current arrangements represents a brilliant public relations coup for the super-rich. For a somewhat modest outlay, it almost looks as if they are pulling something approximating their weight. Continue reading
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Better to be a banker than on workfare if you do something wrong
Penalties, as the current bonus season reveals all too clearly, are still a matter of class. If you’re a young person 16-24 on a work experience programme promoted as ‘voluntary’, and you drop out even for good reason, you stood to lose two weeks’ benefit (until the government was forced to back down by public pressure). If you’re a banker and you’re guilty of large-scale mis-selling of payment protection insurance (PPI), you have your bonus reduced by 25-40% – not quite the same existential penalty when your bonus was £1.45m. Continue reading
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As Hester still gets £6m bonuses, the utterly destitute lose Social Fund
There are two different universes at Westminster, completely disconnected. One is about Hester who has sacked thousands and still presides over RBS languishing at a share price only half of what taxpayers paid for in the bailout, but who has already on top of his £550,000 salary (£10,575 a week) gained £11m in bonuses and incentives and looks set to pick up another £6m for a fairly unexceptional performance. Continue reading
