Taxing wealth is the way things are going in the 21st century
Taxation in the next 50 years could move from income and towards wealth – and that means Labour’s mansion tax proposals could look like pinpricks to our grandchildren.
Paul Mason has left Channel 4 News.
Taxation in the next 50 years could move from income and towards wealth – and that means Labour’s mansion tax proposals could look like pinpricks to our grandchildren.
Alex Salmond’s dramatic move – after a night of drama in Scotland and a day of confusion in Westminster – adds another variable to the outcome of the constitutional crisis.
There’s enough results in to say a victory for no looks highly likely, so here are some initial thoughts…
If it’s rough, and profane, it’s because that’s what street politics are like when ideologies collide. That’s what it was like when class defined British politics.
Maybe you can’t have a strident British nationalism. Maybe that’s the subtextual mistake all those lectern-banging politicians have been making.
Deutsche Bank’s warning over an independent Scotland’s finances is all over the headlines. How seriously should we take it?
The Renton test is simple: can your argument sway someone like the junkie Mark Renton in Trainspotting? His tirade to the deserted hillside is now etched into Scottish folk memory.
There are a panoply of risks associated to Scottish Independence. The transition risks might be survivable, but goodwill is required from London and Edinburgh if it is going to work.
If the yes camp wins next Thursday it will be, in large part, because in addition to the SNP, this “non-party” broad coalition has inspired people.
I don’t know whether I will bump in to the Westminster party leaders in Scotland today — but this is what I would ask if I did.
Gordon Brown’s “new powers for Scotland” may not be the last throw of the dice for the no campaign – but the proposal is undoubtedly a gambit.
As the Eurozone project goes on failing, it is dragging the institutions and economies of Europe into a zone of disrepute that will drive anti-EU sentiment here.
The UK is said to be pressing for the closure of the SWIFT bank-clearance service, which would be a big move.
Of the big macro issues – banking, debt, oil and the pound – the most critical is banking. But a desire to reject free markets, privatisation and high inequality will also play its part.
I don’t have any answers, but anybody who thinks there can be anything “permanent” in the disorder thus created is crazy.