STOCK MARKET WATCH -- Friday, 16 March 2012

[Ghost Dog]

9. UK Lib Dems drop opposition to scrapping 50p tax in new Budget deal

The Liberal Democrats have dropped their opposition to scrapping the 50p top rate of tax and offered the Conservatives a Budget deal that would cut taxes for the highest earners...

... Senior ministers will spend the weekend in 11th-hour talks about the Budget package before Mr Osborne presents his package next Wednesday.

Senior Conservatives are committed to scrapping the 50p rate eventually, but have not yet decided if now is the right time for what would be highly controversial move for their party.

Despite mounting economic arguments against the 50p rate, some Conservatives feel that scrapping the rate at a time of rising unemployment and falling household incomes would be a political mistake, allowing Labour to paint the Tories as the party of the rich. One comprimise which has been suggested is to reduce the rate to 45p...

/... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/9147491/Lib-Dems-drop-opposition-to-scrapping-50p-tax-in-new-Budget-deal.html


I'll add this comment on the Telegraph's article, out of the many at link for those interested, because it illustrates the most common attitude amongst the "haves" in UK society (have well-paying jobs, perks, nice housing, new car, vacations ...). Some of these may be struggling, but still essentially feel this way. Blair's NewLabour fucked up massively by failing, as usual, to do what a truly left-leaning government should when it had the chance, instead being perceived as having increased the cost and especially the degree of intrusion into private lives of State bureaucracies.

Comment from cargill55:


I have absolutely no idea what all the fuss is about amongst the socialists but i have a feeling it is to do with envy about anyone who has some money and high taxation and high spending , creating the big state , is the totem of socialism.
What they choose to ignore is that even if they get higher taxes these taxes are wasted because they are simply thrown at a ravenous state which proceed to waste the taxes it is given.
Look at the figures.
£600 billion taxes raised in the uk.
£720 billion state spending so £120 billion deficit of which £90 billion is structural.
£1000 billion state debt and rising.
£1000 billion unfunded public sector pensions.
£1600 billion gdp annually.
Now the socialists could talk about reducing the size of the state which costs us £720 billion a year but that does not compute because the state MUST ALWAYS have more money.
They could talk about economic growth so more taxes are raised that way but economic growth comes from the business sector and that is a dirty word.
So they grab the first thing in sight which is actually a completely irrelevant issue of £1 billion here or there for the state but which really portrays their distorted view of society and economy.
Soak the rich whatever effect it has on the entrepreneurial ( another dirty word to the left) dynamism of this country because it makes the left feel good.
I have a message to the left.
There are really critical fundamental economic problems in the uk just now.
You penalising entrepreneurs and business leaders with spiteful taxes will not resolve them.
Does anyone notice that the left always talks in vague generalisations and never in context.
Get a life.