16 March 2012

Friday favourite 50

Work commitments this week have got in the way of any forward planning of the Friday favourite. But the strong rumours that the Lib Dems are about to support George Osbourne's abolishing of the 50p upper tax rate has meant I thought it might be good to find something appropriate.

Abolishing the 50p tax rate that only 350,000 people in the UK are eligible to pay is almost certainly good economics - and evidence seems to suggest that it has raised almost no revenue since being introduced at the arse end of the Blair/Brown government.

However it is appalling politics.

The budget has for decades been irrelevant to economic management - that happens on a day-to-day basis regardless. But it remains the big political theme setting set piece of the political year. And if the headline is a relative handful of rich people get a tax break from it - then it simply adds to the confirmation that the current government is a Tory one in everything other than name.

Anyway onto the song. What is clear is that generally in the UK income is taxed too highly and wealth is not taxed enough.

So to put some steel in the spines of Liberal MPs here is Michael Foot's favourite polical song - the Land. But apologies for the poor quality of the sound.

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