It's a massive part of British life! Enormous. The reductions in inheritance tax over the decades and the campaign to do away with it altogether, show it is not just the left who have thought about this question and the impact it has on British society. This week's budget also helped along tax free millions to trickle down the generations. Where you are born, the conditions you experience, the opportunities you get - they are all a form of inheritance. We know how privately educated people dominate every sphere of life - politics, music, art - even sports like rugby and cricket. Newspaper editors, judges, barristers - a good majority of these powerful people have received that inheritance. Look at someone like David Cameron and how his rich powerful family inherited slave money and power over the centuries. Look even more at the infamous Hogg family. The most recent was Douglas Hogg minister with Thatcher fame, although no doubt there will be some more little Hoggs along shortly. In fact I think one of 'em's already head of the bank of England or something. Douggie was tory Lord Chancellor of the Privvy (or something) and so was his dad and so was his grandad and so was his great grandad and his great-great grandad - who got his money from the gazillions the country paid slave owners in compensation for the loss of their slave plantations. These people have shaped and moulded British society for centuries now some of them. The money and power passes from one generation to the next. How can you say that is not important?
Macron like his buddy Sunak are cut from the same cloth. Just need an Antoine Saint-Juste to get hold of him. Man of the people ? The man of the monied. Doing his best to appear a man of the people by flying out to Qatar. Another of the insidious crony class with wealth who get into power all the time. We're not living in a democracy but a worldwide plutocracy.
To your mob of sycophants . Probably yes . Very few hold your view however . Oh look we have an incompetent bunch of buffoons running the country because GOBE and his crew fill the electorate with dread . It is the only logical conclusion. How about you and your mob stop being bellends? Just a thought...
Why don’t you come in a little less strong? People are taking the pee, for sure, but your posts are often highly accusatory. And I don’t even disagree with you in many respects. I believe Labour should work for the working class. That doesn’t mean it has to adopt Tory Nationalist values because these have become popular with a section of it. Why don’t we all have a go working out what we agree about?
I would take him seriously if he acknowledged that many affluent black people benefited from slavery . But white liberals are very select with their views.
You are correct @Moose . Guilty as charged. It is anger that is coming out. And I play up to the working class oik either on line or in person . And , even tho I have never met you in person, you know that you are one the few that I will listen to\take seriously
Who do you mean here, Clive? I think you may have misunderstood. I don’t think it’s difficult to acknowledge that history is complex and no one has a monopoly on good and evil. People who are downtrodden are not going to be angels and some will take an opportunity to oppress their own. Race and class are pernicious. They enter every head. But the outcomes of slavery are very clear if you simply plot land, wealth, political power, life expectancies etc. The slavers had great advantage and used that over the working class too.
Entire African nations relied on slavery for their economy and fought the British Navy when it enforced a ban on slave trading. Slavery has been a systemic element of most countries. To say it is a problem that was only an issue for white nations is utter stupidity wrapped up in ignorance. Slavery was never legally recognised in Britain, and it was judged that the nation was so sacred under god and the law that no person could remain a slave if they set foot on its shores. That said, I am unsure what that has to do with what Clive was saying!
Inheritance tax does not affect the super rich. They can afford to avoid it. It only penalises the middle ground who through no fault of their own have seen the price of property rocket, died early or lived frugally saving for their retirement. At the very least the threshold needs increasing. At best the whole tax system needs adjusting to make it fairer. The easy fix is to kill it off completely. Wealth taxation takes no account of generation or ability to pay. Forcing people to sell their family homes is not the right way to raise revenue. All it does is reward those that don't want to save plan or work hard.
Yes, the rich dodge it - as they do many taxes. That is an argument for cutting out their loopholes, not for abolishing the tax! Through "no fault of their own" and also through no work or effort or contribution of their own either. Their house is now worth millions and all of this massive gain in capital is absolutely tax free! Marvellous. Why shouldn't tax be paid on those unearned gains when they pass on? You also fail to note that people getting inheritances do absolutely nothing at all - nothing. No work. No contribution. Nothing. And then a great big fortune falls in their lap. I would suppose you would see yourself set to inherit in this way and THAT is why you're against a sensible view on it.
Sort of agree re IHT on unearned wealth, but: The wealth has been accrued on property that has rocketed in value through no effort. Fair enough. However the bequests will very often be to help children and grandchildren get on the property ladder which has also rocketed.
Yes thereby maintaining the division between those with property and those without. The children and grandchildren have obviously done nothing to merit being able to 'get on the property ladder', whilst others can't. In my view, unless there's someone else living there full time, inheritance tax should be 100% on housing. That is the now empty house would revert to state ownership. Watch how fast that move solves the 'housing crisis'.
The point being, my revolutionary friend, that if there hadn't been rampant housing inflation, you could have got on the ladder as I did, with a deposit of £3k cadged from my parents. Your idea of 100% inheritance tax on housing, aside from being "the politics of envy" made flesh, is that people would mortgage to the hilt as they approached end of life, and give the proceeds to their kids, with the house reverting to the mortgage holder on death.
If we had a government that could regularly deliver 300,000 new homes per year, with a suitable mixture of size and tenure, a significant portion of the countries problems would be solved........
My suggestion would be to ban residential property ownership for non-doms. Want to own a house in the UK? You need to live there.
I get your intention, but don't you think that sounds a trifle Nationalistic? How about, you don't get to own a home in the UK unless someone is living in it? That may also benefit people in Cornwall and other parts of the country where city millionaires buy properties and leave them vacant for years on end, pushing up prices so local people can't afford to buy homes in their own towns.
A coherent and well presented argument until the last sentence where your incorrect assumption shows the true motivation behind the position.
It's enjoyable watching the new woke left eating it's own tail . Anywho If they (woke mob) Google Macrons stormtroopers beating up the elderly protesting against inforced pension changes I wonder if they may change their opinion on their EU fan boy ? #AskinForABeatUpPensioner
Apart from idiots , who believes that their is any difference between a Tory and a Liberal ? Who believes that the Liberal actually cares about the working class/poor? Despite lovely tweets. #4.9M
Is it that time of the week again? Other users - who was that chap who used to get pissed and go off on rants and get himself into troube?
Nice deflection 6.5\10 . Anywho . Back on topic. Any thoughts whatsoever regarding Macron and his Stormtroopers bashing up pensioners ? . Thought not . Coward . Cheers. I'll have 2 pints what you are having .
I think you mean Kelso? Ol' Davey is the forum equivalent of Father Jack, only instead of "feck" it's "woke".
Kelso, latterly CleyHorn. His drunken rants did have some heart to them, and he was most unapologetic. I miss him. Even if he did try to get me banned. He's a Good bloke in the flesh.
