[new puritan]

Yet more risible stuff from Heath. They aren't allowing comments on this article for some reason - perhaps because it's a crock of shite and even Telegraph readers would baulk at it.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/journalists/ ... icher.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

One of the most pernicious myths in the current political debate is that the rich don’t pay much tax.

This is nonsense, as even a cursory analysis of the official statistics reveals. The top 1pc, who earn £156,000 or above, will pay a whopping 24.2pc of all income tax this year, a much higher contribution than their 10.8pc share of all income. The top 10pc of earners – those on at least £50,500 – will pay 55.3pc of all income tax, also far more than their income share.

Isn't this just evidence of the yawning chasm between rich and poor in this country? If we had a more egalitarian distribution of wealth, the lower orders could afford to pay more income tax (which actually makes up less than a third of Treasury revenue anyway). The rich don't seem to want that though, which renders this sort of bellyaching pointless. And as for this, well...

But the war on wealth, and regulatory overreaction towards finance, is also having an effect. Capital gains tax is too high. Luxury homes transactions are falling because of higher stamp duty. Britain is now a high tax economy; this is distorting work and investment decisions, gradually shifting talent and capital overseas. The overwhelming majority of high earners are already contributing disproportionately to the exchequer; tightening the screws further will be disastrously counter-productive.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Dominic Lawson's been spouting the same rubbish.

[Tubby Isaacs]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... tions.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Still the same rubbish from the editor of the FT for City kids straight out of college.

Vince Cable is a lefty, and the government trying to get banks to lend money they were given for that purpose is like something out of Pravda. Funny, no mention of how the free-for-all in banking ended.

And it's back to the seventies, on account of (as far as I can tell) alcohol minimum pricing and the green levies. The Milk Marketing Board was being "socialist" till 1994. No doubt there are other examples.

And he's read the budget. He knows it's got a lot of pages though, so it must be bad. Elsewhere he talks of loopholes. No doubt these shouldn't be closed because it would make the budget longer.

[new puritan]

Allister can't understand why big business won't hop aboard the anti-EU bandwagon.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... -jobs.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Greek and Spanish youth unemployment has reached an almost criminal 57pc, capital is pouring out of socialist France and nobody believes Europe to be the future anymore.

Anyone would think the British economy was in rude health reading stuff like this. No double (or triple) dip in France, remember.

Instead, the past few weeks have been the worst for mainstream Eurosceptics in years. Their inability to launch a proper campaign, and to organise and galvanise the silent majority of sceptical business people, has allowed the pro-EU forces to launch a brilliant rearguard action.

What 'silent majority'? Big business wants unhindered access to the single market and it doesn't want right-wing headbangers fucking that up.

As a result, it now seems that the absence of a concerted, respectable Eurosceptic business voice has allowed David Cameron to settle on a watered-down, underwhelming set of principles for his hugely important speech on Friday, satisfying nobody. A historic opportunity to identify a new vision for Britain as a Singapore or Hong Kong of Europe, trading with the continent but not governed by it, and for Cameron to stave off the rise of Ukip, has almost certainly been incompetently and disastrously squandered.

There's no Eurosceptic business voice because business, on the whole, likes the EU. For some reason the right is unwilling to face up to this. I'm not sure Heath realises just how statist the Singaporean economy is, though. Its government is pretty big for its size and intervenes quite heavily in the economy, particularly in R&D.

[Timbo]

As a result, it now seems that the absence of a concerted, respectable Eurosceptic business voice has allowed David Cameron to settle on a watered-down, underwhelming set of principles for his hugely important speech on Friday, satisfying nobody. A historic opportunity to identify a new vision for Britain as a Singapore or Hong Kong of Europe, trading with the continent but not governed by it, and for Cameron to stave off the rise of Ukip, has almost certainly been incompetently and disastrously squandered.

There's no Eurosceptic business voice because business, on the whole, likes the EU. For some reason the right is unwilling to face up to this. I'm not sure Heath realises just how statist the Singaporean economy is, though. Its government is pretty big for its size and intervenes quite heavily in the economy, particularly in R&D.

It always makes me laugh when they come out with shit like this about Norway, too. And considering that we have a veto over all European law, doesn't that make us the ones forcing our rules on everybody else? *facedesk*

[Tubby Isaacs]

Nice to see Heath again.

Singapore? I thought him and his mates were libertarian and for press freedom.

[new puritan]

Quite. Anyone would think all that stuff was just a ruse to draw the gullible in. Isn't homosexuality still illegal in Singapore? Thatcher was no social libertarian, but Heath and his peers still idolise her.

[youngian]

City AM fills a gap in the market for city workers who are too thick to read the FT and find its analysis and more considered big picture economics irrelevant to their tunnel vision money making life.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm going to use that on his blog!

[Tubby Isaacs]

I did use it.

Heath's talking "radical" again. You know what we need? Abolish capital gains tax!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... hocks.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Fflaps]

I must say youngian, I work in finance and I have never met anyone who reads City AM. Who on earth is reading it??

[Kreuzberger]

I must say youngian, I work in finance and I have never met anyone who reads City AM. Who on earth is reading it??

No one. It's a recruitment website for candidates who wear white socks with a weak, self-indulgent front end that serves no purpose other than window-dressing.

[new puritan]

More trickle-down crap from Heath. Apparently inheritance tax acts as a drag on the economy, so we should get rid of it. Thatcherites are a funny bunch - they like to peddle homilies about meritocracy and making work pay, but every time they come into power they seem to be preoccupied with shovelling yet more money into the hands of the idle rich and the rentiers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... amage.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The comments are even funnier. Life isn't fair so we shouldn't do anything about inequality, but inheritance tax isn't fair so we should do away with it. Super.

[Timbo]

Also a nice healthy dose of "we only spend it all on foreigners anyway"

[youngian]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comm ... amage.html

The comments are even funnier. Life isn't fair so we shouldn't do anything about inequality, but inheritance tax isn't fair so we should do away with it. Super.

Well this is a novel one-

Families are the best venture capitalists. Most entrepreneurial start-ups aren’t financed through bank loans but by savings, often small sums of money tucked away after years of belt-tightening, sacrifice and hard work. This will be especially true in the current credit-constrained world, where it has become tougher for small firms to borrow from banks.

Sounds like a good argument for raising inheritiance tax further while providing tax breaks for venture capital and R&D funds.