[Tubby Isaacs]

So no change to inheritance tax policy, but a problem with banks, and we see problems with start-ups.

And the inference to draw from that is that banks aren't the ones who fund start-ups.

I'm thinking the start-ups that have to pass muster with a bank manager might be a bit more credible than the ones which are funded by your own inheritance.

[new puritan]

Don't tax me and my mates, says Allister Heath.

Remarkably, as the clamour for wealth taxes demonstrates, the thinker who has re-emerged, yet again, as the guru of the moment is one Karl Marx, buried in London’s Highgate Cemetery 130 years ago and supposedly long since consigned to the dustbins of history.

Marx, of course, was not the first to argue that there is such a thing as ill-begotten “unearned” income, the fruits of capital in the form of rent, interest, dividends or capital gains, not to be confused with earned income from selling one’s labour. But somewhere deep in Britain’s collective consciousness, even among passionate opponents of socialism, some Marxist ideas remain influential, albeit in an implicit, cultural sort of way. A “heavy progressive or graduated income tax” and a war on inherited wealth were key demands in the 1848 Manifesto of the Communist Party; they were scandalously extreme by the standards of the day but are mainstream today. No wonder, therefore, that Marx’s influence can be detected in the present debate, even if many supporters of wealth taxes will express horror at the thought.

Yet regardless of its intellectual origins, a tax on people’s assets is ethically wrong, economically destructive and would damage growth and job creation, with the poor and middle classes suffering intense collateral damage.

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

[youtube]DksSPZTZES0[/youtube]

[Tubby Isaacs]

I had the misfortune to get pissed in a pub with City AM lying around last night. And Wetherspoon's News, for good measure.

[youngian]

And Wetherspoon's News, for good measure.

Was the Wetherspoon's boss wanking off about the Euro or something similar?

[Tubby Isaacs]

Tax on beer. So at least relevant.

[The Red Arrow]

Is this prick serious?

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

[Bones McCoy]

Is this prick serious?

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

More serious than most of the comments, for instance...

WE DON'T NEED CAMERONS IDEAS OF LIFE.. WE NEED A PATHOLOGICAL GAME PLAN TO TAKE OVER THE COUNTRY..

1) Arrest of medical criminals to shift £1billion pounds worth of property per constituency from Marxist Perverts to customer oriented businesses

2) Reorientate education so that students can compete for their jobs all over the future of the world..

3) Get people paid to work competitively and contribute with their initiative rather than made to serve

4) Make youth worth more! reduce all pensions down to their things to do per quarter.. shift money to young families and organise competitive activities .. with the budgets to use capacities to the full

5) Recreate the sporting good fun of a lovable society.. by taking collective class action against councils who have unsportingly dysfunctionalised society..

6) Terminate mortgages.. take possession of property for reallocation to those who want to be productive and internationally competitive

7) Set up Search and Save phone apps and websites or accounts with banks.. so that customers can buy what they require on a budget whilst paying off credit cards and loans.. in ways that improve the cashflow of retail businesses..

Restore the cultures and thinking of Provisional Capitalism.. introduce the SQUANDER ACT to legitimise a Psycho Economic Tax

9) Take over companies as required to restaff Britain with competitors rather than degenerates ..

10) Shift funding from indolents to competitive community spirited outgoing people who have the motive to show off and interact progressively..

BCD TLC The Libertarian Conservatives.. sporting popular men turned into cultural warriors by the deliberate economic dysfunctionalisation of the establishment!!!

[new puritan]

Heath's latest Thatcher hagiography has been neatly demolished by Tim Fenton:

http://zelo-street.blogspot.co.uk/2013/ ... avels.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Tubby Isaacs]

Heath now says you won't need HS2 because we'll have driverless cars.

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

[youngian]

Heath now says you won't need HS2 because we'll have driverless cars.

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

And does he think the infrastructure will be free?

By allowing people to relax or work as they commute, they will deal a devastating blow to public transport in all but the densest, most congested areas.

Why as a metropolitan dweller would I want to buy a car to replicate the function of public transport?

And whats all this 'deal a devastating blow to public transport' as if they were some kind of socialist plot.

[Tubby Isaacs]

That's exactly what they think it is.

[Tubby Isaacs]

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

Heath touches on the massive problem of his indebted City mates, but doesn't follow it up.

But he's basically sensible about private debt.

[Bones McCoy]

So no change to inheritance tax policy, but a problem with banks, and we see problems with start-ups.

And the inference to draw from that is that banks aren't the ones who fund start-ups.

I'm thinking the start-ups that have to pass muster with a bank manager might be a bit more credible than the ones which are funded by your own inheritance.

During good times, start ups can get a sizeable wedge from venture capitalists.

[Tubby Isaacs]

And the venture capitalists can get money off us.

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

Or as Heath puts it, we can reduce the size of the state.

[Tubby Isaacs]

beatonthedonis
44 minutes ago
Utterly predictable troll-bait built on dodgy figures and a fantasy grasp of recent history and current affairs: