Oh Dear It Seems Balls Is A Bit Off Message Here!

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-32225719
Unusualy for Balls he is correct but how does that fit with the Party's shaft the "rich" approach?

[joggerjayne]

It's a typical "own goal" bit of posturing by the trots.

1. We will abolish the non dom "loophole" (Labour supporters cheer!)

2. But we accept this will mean high tax payers disappear altogether (Labour supporters start to see the flaw)

3. To make up the shortfall, err ... the money has to come from ... err, somewhere else (Labour spotters finally realise that they have to pay more tax to cover the shortfall)

It's like the old Labour 98% income tax rate. Tax revenue fell, because the top earners didn't bother earning money at that margin. As soon as the 98% band was abolished, top earners started paying MORE tax.

It's a typical self destructive "politics of envy" proposal by the trots which will, in reality, make the rest of us WORSE off.

[Jackdaw33]

This reminds me of the 1983 Labour Manifesto, the 'longest suicide note in history'.

[joggerjayne]

Tora, maybe the only way to get the Labour faithful to understand the principle is to ask them ...

Would you become better off, or worse off, if the top rate of tax was 100% ??

No, actually, I suspect they still wouldn't grasp the point.

[Deskdiary]

Its gesture politics of the worst kind as a sop to mollify the jealous. Same as the hike in the top rate of tax from 45% to 50%.

Surely those afflicted with a Labour disposition can see this, can't they? Or do they recognise it as gesture politics but are happy with it anyway because they enjoy seeing the rich being cast as pariahs?

[fiction-factory]

I think it's more likely to be a vote winner than a vote loser. Whilst I don't think it will raise any money I think it's a symbolic move giving the impression that the rich and tax dodgers will be made to paid their fair share (even though some will argue they probably pay more than their fair share now). People generally support higher taxes on anyone that's better off than we are.

[venator]

It's a vote winner which is trotted out in every election

[mushroom25]

this is a more worrying prospect - clearly the labour party believe the middle classes are also a bunch of unprincipled money grabbers.....

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband/11508549/Labour-could-raise-taxes-for-middle-class-professionals.html

[Baldric]

It's all rather sad, the majority of Labour voters belong to the lower tax paying groups who are no longer represented by the Labour Party, but you can't tell them that, they won't accept it.

[DTCwordfan]

Dennis Healey, when unearned tax top rate was 98p in the £ - "If I could tax them at 101%, I would."

Now wonder there was a brain drain and capital flight from the UK in the early 80s.

[naomi24]

Doesn't Labour get itself in a pickle?!

[DTCwordfan]

Yep - if someone would take a look at HK, cutting tax rates to 15% flat, no exemptions (apart from handicaps and elderly on income) has led to every one paying up. They also have the lowest staffed tax office in relation to the population....

I would be tempted to cut corporation to 15%, bring in a capital or profits flight tax at 30% as a deterrent and see the growth in income. Currently a tad under 40bln. This would imply a 10bln cost, but with Britain's black capital flight est at 10% of a Euro 1trillion bill across the Market, that whole would be more than filled up by taking 20% of the missing money in, never mind making us far more attractive to invest in.

[Peter Pedant]

// Would you become better off, or worse off, if the top rate of tax was 100% ?? //

They ( in this case the Left but I suspect most people ) would say YEAH! of course I would be - it would mean more tax for them and less for me !

Politics of envy again - Tony Bliar would never have allowed this,
and look at the govt we got then !

[joggerjayne]

Labour are a party for whom there is no longer a need.

They simply don't need to exist. And they only survive by making themselves a bit more like the other parties.

And they seem to be basing their Election hopes on one principal ...

... If you work hard, and do well, then we will punish you.

[ToraToraTora]

you mean the mid 70s DTC, by the early 80s those rates had been abolished.

[naomi24]

JJ, //Labour are a party for whom there is no longer a need. //

I agree.

[ludwig]

The problem with Labour is it's a party that's designed to make itself redundant. They've improved the lot of working people to the extent that most of them can now afford to vote Conservative - or at least think they can.

[naomi24]

What’s to afford? The last Labour government fleeced the working man and given the opportunity will do it again.

[ludwig]

// What’s to afford? //

I'm talking about the Labour movement in general including the unions and the changes it's made to society over the last 100 odd years. Without it there'd be no welfare state, NHS, decent pay and working conditions - none of that would have happened through market forces.

Now it's all there though, the working 'man' doesn't need Labour, and it doesn't represent them. I'm basically agreeing with JJ's point.

[naomi24]

Ah, right. It was the "or at least think they can" that threw me.