It would be even better if they brought back the old "Supertax", 95% of income over a certain amount: nowadays £100,000 would be about right.

Another thing to look at, and control, is the ratio of earnings within each organisation. The earnings, including bonuses, of the managing director, chief executive, etc should be restricted to a ratio of, say, five times the salary of the lowest paid employee within the enterprise.

Currently the ratio is often in the region of a thousand to one or higher. No man or woman is a thousand times better at any job than someone else, which means that even if the highest earners depart this land with a petted lip, we will have no difficulty in finding replacements who are just as good.

Good on ye Ming, get a bit of riguor and fairness back in teh system.

What was that noise was uit the first Cuckoo of spring?

Ming can wax lyrical about whatever he wants to he will never be in power and when they have to hand back the 2.8 million quid from the dodgy donor the party will be bankrupt

Desperate times for the Liberal Democrats (sic). Tax, Tax, Tax.

Are corporations paying their fair share of tax?
95% tax bracket? What did George Harrison sing about again?
You'd be able to walk across The Irish Sea and English Channel on the backs of well heeled tax refugees swimming away.

As I said, Scullion, there would be no problem with tax refugees departing, as we have plenty willing to work for a fair income to replace them. The super-rich, Thatcher's legacy of greed is good, have already floated free of UK society. Swimming away across the sea would be just the thing for them.

At the risk of being dubbed a right wing dinosaur, I vividly remember the days of the 95 % tax bracket in the 1940s, fostered mainly by class envy (aka socialist idealism). It continued until the Thatcher era. People who could get away like actors and best-selling authors did so, but British company executives just coasted along, essentially on a fixed net income. There was no direct incentive to "do better" or do anything really, except look important and enjoy the perks. The result was sloppy management and a huge loss in competitive strength, which came back to haunt us with the loss of manufacturing industry and the employment that went with it. The loss haunts us still. If you doubt that, look at the UK balance of trade and look at the troubles with underemployed youth.

#8

That dipstick who managed to ruin a large bank got paid £1.35 Million last year, probably paid little tax, tax has nothing to do with performance.

You are probably in business and the industry of greed. Science, engineering, creative industries will always aspire to do well for prestige. So will athletes etc.

The only people effected will be skilless fat cats who wear a striped suit talk in buzzwords, rape and pillage communal wealth.

This man can make any 'promises' he wants, as he is not going to get in, they can never be put into practice.

Basically, if the Libs say something, it is the most they can get away with, without looking like they are on cloud cuckoo land and not anything that would ever matter in true fiscal policy.

GERRI PEEV - don't be naive!

In trying to imply its 'I'm alright Jack' that the 70K threshold just tops his 60K salary, what do you really think the leader of a political party at his age is earning a year.

what a stupid idiot, ............. and all you people who dont like rich folks go try get a job from a poor person

# 10 Suck McCrunchie

The Lib Dems are the only real opposition party to the UK government. Nice to see we can vote socialism again without having to break up the union.

Brown and blair managed to derail socialism and get away with crimes, err policy, that would have even made the cold hearted PMT dragon Thatcher soil herself with a gluttinous glee.

Get a bit of rigour and choice back in the system, that's what I say.

#11 The Fly Fifer

Poor chap, you have been brainwashed. Do you really need a 'rich person' to trade with your fellow man on this planet? In reality that is.

I submit you do not, but have been taught since birth you do and so you came to believe it. Get a skill and do something of value.

What a clown!

The world is fast changing. Wealthy people ( or even those just doing OK.) are able to move freely, and domicile in any number of tax friendly environments.

He really is a donkey.

#14 Dekester

We have another brain washed fella here.

Look what has happened when you let London become a tax haven. You get the super rich coming over and buying the place up, property sky rockets, British institutions having their unique cultural value diluted and so on.

If they leave, we will lose some revenue granted, but we will also gain back as much if not more 'value'.

House values are about 60k for the bricks and mortar and they sell for 250k because the ruch buy 4 or 5 houses.

I don't think he is a clown, I think he is making a sensible suggestion that would benefit all.

And thus the reason, that I, now earning $500,000 and employing 100 people left Scotland and took the jobs with me.

#14

Oh yeah and the jobs they rich create. Do we want to be a nation of 'wealth manager'. F**k that, let's start working and making things for a living again. Making pop songs, shopping, sale and playing project managers is only storing up a bigger disaster for later.

We can afford the rich leaving, but if ever the foreign scientists and engineers leave we've had it. And they will leave as they can;t compete with the rich for decent houses.

Let's add some more job creation to the rich.

Waiting their tables at high class resteraunts, selling and valeting their expensive sports cars, more designer shops on our high streets we can serve them there.

We can create the same amount of jobs serving each other. It's just that's not a idea people are willing to buy.

I think Ming is living in a complete fantasy land.

This will encourage more Scots to move abroad (Oz has pretty high income tax but at least you get a lot of sunshine thrown in).

Ming thinks that top sportsmen, engineers and scientists working in Scotland and the rest of the UK aren't going to leg it to the USA or Switzerland or Germany.

Has Ming discussed this with Andrew Murray and the Old Firm football players?

DUH!

Well done Ming The Genius!

Any chance of Ming the lawyer doing something abuot the scandalous amount of money made by Scottish law firms from Legal Aid.

At least two law firms in Dundee are making over £1million a year on legal aid only - not counting the money made from private clients.

#16, ScotsRooltheWorld
Thanks for coming to the USA. We need people like you. Smart immigrants have fueled US growth for years.

As a philosophical question, is it the government’s job to redistribute wealth? Is this why you want a higher tax rate? If so, what about having lower income tax rate, but a much higher death tax? Allow a person to accumulate the wealth he earns or creates, but do not let the wealth pass to his children. Make them earn their own money. Keep the talent happy, but reduce the generation growth of wealth.

#20

"You only show your lack of knowledge on what makes this planet actually go round."

That would be the momentun generated when the planet formed then? Certainly not foreign investment dipstick. There is no getting away from reality. When the have nots outnumber the haves, they will just take it and law will break down, I learned that in my history classes btw.

Best to manage the process through taxation.

#21 Quiet John

"As a philosophical question, is it the government’s job to redistribute wealth?"

This is an interesting question and one which is immediately bias.

Look at it from the other perspective. Society pays the medical bills and education bills for the generation of workers at any given time, pays the street lighting. All these resources create the wealth and so is it the job of a government to redistribute this into the hands of the few?

You seem to attack this like every other buffoon from the false premise that this planet belongs to a ruling class. Wierd if you ask me.

Well said #16. Not all of us just want to 'get by'. I got lucky and got offered a chance to work overseas in the oil industry and am still working abroad. My mortgage is paid, I have money in the bank and none of this would be possible had I still been plugging away in Aberdeen. All I can hope for locally is maybe a 50K ceiling, the predictable annual Christmas layoffs, no job security and sky high living costs. Now some may say '50K not enough?? - what does this guy expect?' but after income tax, NI, local taxes, pension rip offs, costs of raising kids and providing basic quality of life AND saving an amount of money over the longer term that can provide some security later in life 50K is not that much, but its still about twice the national average which says a lot about life in the UK. Fact is the return on your money is ZERO in 'Rip Off Britain' which is why so many people are actively looking to get out and few return once they do get away.

The standard of living is as miserable as the weather.

To follow up my earlier comment - for any folk actually contemplating returning to the UK I suggest you learn to speak Polish before you step off the plane. Otherwise the guy on the immigration desk won't be able to understand you.

The thought of taxing the rich in favour of the poor is enough to make me sick.

More oiks get upward mobility and the rich will not be able to afford second and third homes and allow low income families and singletons to participate on the housing ladder. Sadly rentals in some areas are not very profitable but maybe another tax reduction could be had.

Labour is not about equality nor protection of the poor, thats why I voted for them. I also voted for them so I could laugh at the central belt fools who vote for me to be taxed less than them - bless.

I am all for rewarding enterprise and hard work but the problem is the obscene bonuses paid to corporate heads for mediocre or under-performance-eg the head honcho of Northern Rock who was paid a 1.35M pounds bonus!

We are living in an increasingly polarised nation of haves and the have nots -those of us competing with cheap labour from Poland and other immigrants and the post -Thatcher "greed is good" mentality does not make for a healthy society. I recollect Sir Ronald Cohen, founder of private equity firm Apax, recently forecasting that if people are "left behind" in the race to accumulate riches, there could be a repeat of the Paris 2005 riots.

The Super-rich have enjoyed a very easy ride in the past 25 years and it is now time to remedy the unfairness of the current tax system but 70,000 pa is not "super-rich". The key question is how to strike a balance that is fairer but does reward initiative.

PS Also abolishing immigration and the social security culture would be positive steps!

Labour have turned Tory and now Liberals have turned Socialist.

#1 95% income tax? If they won't pay the current rates why would they pay this rate. Also a good way to kill off investment - remember is was tried before and that's why most high earners left to live abroad.

What you need to do is close many of the loop-hole the super rich have for avoiding tax.

Dead party - dead ideas. Thank the Lord they will never get into power.

Libdems can say whatever they like. They'll never get into power in the UK, or after Independence, in Scotland.

Their casual remarks about "the sticks", "hoi polloi" and their very performance in Edinburgh so far is enough to prevent them.

They just continue to prove what their opponents have said about them all along!

Maybe it's time they made MP's allowances part of their wage for tax purposes. Most of them get around the same amount in allowances as they do in wages.

Whether the Marxist dinosaurs on here like it or not, it is an economic fact that raising taxes in the way that Campbell suggests actually lowers the tax take for the government.

Now if your aim is to fund decent public services, then you will have no truck with this idea. If however if you wish to crush the poor, on whom the cuts in public services will fall most severely, and wish to engage in the politics of envy like 2000 Stupid Economic Ideas for 99p, where everyone gets dragged down to poverty levels, but hey, who cares, we're all equal, then vote for the Lib Dems.

It is not about the rich - it is about exposing traitors to the working class like 2000 Stupid Economic Ideas for 99p who want to keep everyone downtrodden and poor.

# 31 Kobi

You really have been brainwashed pretty bad, huh?

We must fight tooth and nail to keep greedy fair weather citizens in our midst so we can serve them. LOL. Some premise, you are a sad case.

Better to create a society where people contribute because they want to and put their neanderthol greed behind them.

So we have the Lib Dems being more "left" than Labour, Labour entertaining Mrs Thatcher and the Tories calling for higher taxes !
World turned upside down.

I am an engineer working in the oil industry and after many years in the doldrums earning peanuts our pay rates have just taken a huge hike over the last few years to well over the £70k mark. At the moment I probably pay 30 odd percent tax overall. If Ming has his way I will pay zero percent here and a nominal amount somewhere else because I'll simply set up abroad for tax purposes. What is Ming going to do about that? Send the boys round to duff me up? Get real. Ming shows he just hasn't learned anything from the ridiculous nonsense of 95% tax. Taxing the true super rich is one thing but taxing ordinary working people who for once in their lives happen to be in the right place at the right time has nothing to do with natural justice and everything to do with envy and pandering to envy. Let me give him a clue, if you have a huge sea going yacht, if you own ten sports cars, if you own three estates with fences round to keep the plebs out, if you pay almost zero tax, ...... then you are probably one of the super rich and no-one least of all these lazy good for nothings could complain about being taxed. Personally I think if you create your own company from scratch you should pay no tax whatsoever but if you inherit your wealth you should be taxed say 10% more than everyone else ensuring you use no loop holes. Any use of loopholes discovered would lead to a 100% tax bill for that year. Unfair? Of course not. Everyone of the inherited rich could pay zero tax by simply giving every single penny, every house, every car, every stick of furniture away to charity and set up on their own starting only with a bank loan and they too could pay zero tax. Now that would be a radical idea, zero tax for life for true entrepreneurs but Ming will never do it because he can't see beyond the end of his envious little nose.

#33 Staple,

Great nomiker, by the way - lway makes me smile :-)

Would you like to take home less money, and pay more taxes? If so, how much less would you like to to live off? Or is is increased taxation bas applied to people who have the cheek to earn more than you do?

#36 The Tin Man

The Great British council tax is the only regressive local tax in the world. Point of fact, go check for yourselves.

It is fascinating, as always, to watch the ignorant idiots who can't think for themselves spout out rubbish about why we need the council and not replace it with a progressive local income tax based on "economic" rules from other countries.

Kobi is the funniest yet, it's a simple economic fact he geelfully reports if we scrap a regressive local tax unique to the world people will run for the hills.

Who agrees that Westminster should now be considered as a Federal Parliament, and that England should stop treating it as their own parliament, taking up it's time on purely English matters?

#37, Staples,

Yes, a local income tax is a fairer system. You're not answering the question, though....

#39

Personally, I'm not too bothered about taxes, so long as I get good service for it. (Another issue of course.)

I would never become a very rich man, I would rather work 3 days for the same money then a full time week for twice the money.

If there's food in my belly and enough left over for a few pints a couple nights a week I'm not too fussed. Owning a second or third home never appealed.

#1 people like you are what is wrong with Scotland and the world.

The idea that taxing the 'rich' is beneficial is Marxist.

Ming Campbell is an economic ignoramus and so are you if you think that an economy can be taxed into prosperity

Gordon Brown, Son of the Manse, has allowed the gap between rich and poor to be come an obscenity.

This pandering to the rich in London and the South East of England must stop.

France and Germany have the highest taxes in Europe, their transport systems are the worlds best, their hospitals have no waiting lists, Sir Ming has a point.

#39, Staples,

I admire your candour. If the world was populated by people who were entirely contented with their family being fed, housed and clothed, and have a bit of a bevvy, with the remainder left to the state, it would certainly be a quieter place.

I had thought this type of thinking had been completely eliminated by the disasterous experiences of any countries that had introduced taxes at this level.

Tax should be fair and graduated but nobody should pay more than half their earnings in tax and NIC and that is already happening in Britain today without Ming and his useless Liberals.

the world is a small place, introduce punitive taxation and those liable for those taxes will leave in their droves, this is already happening at current tax levels.

It was Nelson Mandela who said " You cannot make black South Africa rich by making white South Africa poor". The same applies to Britain!

WEalth is created by economic growth and it is that alongside FAIR taxation that can improve living standards, hitting the middle class with punitive taxation creates Poverty as higher mobility leads to a lower tax base.

Ming appears to be a complete nutter more than capable of leading the Liberals to disaster. We can but hope!

#12 Socialism failed, bozo. Look at Hitler's socialist Germany and Stalin's socialist Russia.

I expect you now to somehow claim that these weren't really socialist countries and that Fascism is 'right-wing'

#45 Jethro's flute

I'll make no such claim. Pacifism and diplomacy have also failed on this planet.

The fact that humans are too stupid or selfish to make something a success does not make it a bad idea.

On the wider scale, we all know why socialism fails and that is because the CIA or MI6 will take you out, use protectionism (under the guise of free market) to not trade with you etc.

Look at Iran in the 50s or any African state that gets its literacy rates up using socialism.

So please, when you say it failed, I agree, when you say I don't understand it's a bad idea, please don't blame me for your own ignorance.

#45 Big Eye,

You are correct. Personally, I work abroad and spend six months in the UK. Currently, UK citizens pay 100% of normal income tax if they are in the UK for 91 days, however, they pay no income tax at all if they are in the country for 90 days or less. Although I regard paying taxes as my duty, I would start thinking about taking more holidays if taxation increases. Just greed, really. And human nature.

#17 "Do we want to be a nation of 'wealth manager'. F**k that, let's start working and making things for a living again. "

And how are high taxes going to help us do that, bozo?

You have no grasp of economics or even reality if you think that a country can be taxed into prosperity.

#46 "On the wider scale, we all know why socialism fails and that is because the CIA or MI6 will take you out, use protectionism (under the guise of free market) to not trade with you etc.

Look at Iran in the 50s or any African state that gets its literacy rates up using socialism.
"

You absolute cretin.

Have the CIA been involved in Zimbabwe?

And what possible objection can you have to protectionism?

And you seem to think that protectionism and the free market are the same. They are opposites and you are a very stupid and dishonest person.

"33. 2000 Staples for 99p / 7:04am 17 Sep 2007 # 31 Kobi

You really have been brainwashed pretty bad, huh"

No, it is you who are brainwashed.

You want loads and loads more power for the state because you do not want to think for yourself and you want a free lunch.

#31 good sound economics.

Yes Yes increase the tax burden on the hard working, risk taking successful backbone of UK to prop up the lazy minority who didn't take the opportunity of a free education system and those who see the welfare state as the easy option.

Effort must be rewarded not taxed.

Bye Bye Ming - your minging!!

For many of the reasons already mentioned, I don't think that Ming has thought this through. I suspect that at this very moment some of the more pragmatic LD's will be planning for his imminent retirement and for the replacement of some of his 'immediate' advisors.

Yours etc

Angus Whitton

#48 Jethro's flute

You seem to be creating straw men.

I rich person doesn't create 'wealth' or at least not in the real or meaningful sense. Wherever they go in this world they creat playgrounds like monaco, the employment they 'create' (displace more correctly) is playing cards, or importing luxury goods.

To create wealth you need to invent new technologies etc etc.

I don't think that buy to let 'property developer' and there empire qualifies as welath creation dipstick.

I suggest you answer a telephone for a living and can't understand reality. "Value" and "price" can be used interchangeably in your world because you can't tell the difference.

#49

"And you seem to think that protectionism and the free market are the same. They are opposites and you are a very stupid and dishonest person."

Ever seen those free marketeers, the yanks, taking hammers to the far superiorly engineerd Japanese imported vehicles, ot the EU subsidy etc etc.

Free market doesn't exist on thsi world yet, if it did the Africans would trade there way out of debt.

I feel sorry for you, the support you give to a system you don't understand will just result in guilt when you work out how to feel empathy for your fellow man.

40 Staples,

If everyone thought like you Britain would still be living in the equivalent of the third world.

Thankfully for all of us some people have more drive!

#55

"If everyone thought like you Britain would still be living in the equivalent of the third world."

If by that you mean, we would be living in harmony with nature and all have usefuls trades and skills then I agree.

As it is the city scape is populated by selfish w**kers whose skills are little more than basic numeracy and answering telephones.

If we didn't have the bomb and illegal wars and the will to use them both on innoncents, we would be worse than the third world. They have useful skills.

Why is it always The Green Eyed Monster's here moaning about others.... I have never met such a group of individuals that complain about the Have's and Have Not's.... Heck why don't we just execute all those people making over £70,000.,that have worked hard and are paying their taxes and not living off the philosophy of the free hand outs from Cradle to Grave. Lets teach them a lesson for sticking in to their Lessons in school and doing well in life! It must be their fault their are so many people barely getting by... it couldn't have anything to do with the money they waste on cigarette, or pubs etc or even the fact that they thought they were smart to leave school at 16 to make their mark in life...Hmmm seems I have hit on a number of other huge issues here that just might explain why that Monster keeps appearing...

#58

"couldn't have anything to do with the money they waste on cigarette, or pubs etc"

Two of the most highly taxed items, what is you point. The poor are paying their own way, or is that you just having a wee fart through your mouth again.

No, no, those earning over 70k, a lot of them will make it off others backs or off of technologies invented by and paid for by society or make it by using the 30k a year education we bought for them.

You are so stupid to think there is "no such thing as society".

#57, Staples,

You type with admirable passion, tavoreesh!

I am sure that you have great admiration for the mythical 'Scottish engineer'. So will I get a special tax rate, compared to buisnessman-slime-ball types?

The other Scottish engineer next door does not count, bucause he lives in Monaco.

57 Staples,

Dreadfully clever response!

Do you have any problem with your local pub emptying when you arrive by any chance?

#57. #59 you are an ignoramus of the first order. Rather than whinge about taxing people who work hard , why do you not suggest the poor get themselves some skills, put in some effort and aspire to a better job.
No wonder this country is in such a state , we are full of lazy , freeloading , whinging arseholes who woudl not know a days work if it ran them over. He should be promoting tax cuts to encourage people to work harder , produce more and therefore have more Tax revenue for the country.

#63

He is.

90% of hard working people would get taxed less.

What is your point?

#63

Oh and by the way. Monetary policy dictates we have mass unemployment, the poor are there by choice of society not by choice of themselves.

It's not 1970s you know tory boy? We can't have a skilled work force, they all want paid for their hard work and that leads to inflation.

LOL, I love how you don't know how the system works. It craics me up.

does that figure include expences incurred by our elected members?

Presumably if Ming the Merciless ever got into a ministerial position to do this ( possibly a combination of proportional representation with the National Lottery would do the trick), he would increase the threshold to be slightly above his own salary again.

I am a hard working single mum who would dearly love to see a return to a 10% basic rate on income tax. I have a full time job which I find impossible to survive on due to the high cost of living in Edinburgh, and subsequently had to take on a second job to support myself and my son. 22% of every pound I earn from that goes straight into the Chancellor's coffers and I still struggle. I was married into what would be considered 'upper middle class' and can speak with conviction regarding the differences between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'. There is a basic disregard for people who are marginalised and live on the fringes of society. The majority of the 'haves' simply do not care, simple as that. I have been on this planet for over fifty years and have observed with great sadness the greed and avarice which our fellow 'human beings' display. It's not a question of taxing the rich more in order to subsidise the poor,but introducing a system that is fairer and encourages people to work and to actually be able to see the fruits of their labour reflected in their pay packet.. The tax system since it's conception has always been unfair and weighted heavily against those who are 'worse off'.

#54 "Ever seen those free marketeers, the yanks, taking hammers to the far superiorly engineerd Japanese imported vehicles, ot the EU subsidy etc etc. "

So the Yanks, despite ANTICAPITALIST PROTECTIONISM, are 'free-marketeers?

You are so stupid that you cannot understand the meaning of words.

Protectionism is a feature of socialism, btw.

#65 "It's not 1970s you know tory boy? We can't have a skilled work force, they all want paid for their hard work and that leads to inflation. "

No it doesn't thicko.

Government excess issue of currency is, by definition, inflation and that is what leads to prices soaring.

"I feel sorry for you, the support you give to a system you don't understand will just result in guilt when you work out how to feel empathy for your fellow man."

When has socialism been about empathy. Did, Hiter, Stalin, Mao, Mussolini et al all have loads of empathy?

BTW fascism and socialism are the same in principle, before you start.

Your posts are pure emotionalism with no facts to back them up. 'Empathy' will no put bread on the table once you've taxed the rich and satisfied your envy.

About time we sorted the high earners out who got away with murder under the Blair regime.The 10pence removal of tax was disgracefull.Don`t like his idea that a £2000 a year tax on cars with high emmissions is right.That will affect everyone. Don`t imagine it will be just for a few cars.All will be banded high unless it is a pedal car.

Fine, "hammer the rich" but the fact is that 10% of rich individuals have a disproportionate effect on our economy, squashing them in the short term will win votes but in the long term it will mess things up for everyone.

Not surprised about professional opposition types only taking a short term view though.

irrelevent really as the Lib Dims will never hold power in this country.

2

I agree.I'm not a supporter of the LIb Dems as many will have noticed,but theres nothing wrong with his proposal.However theres not much hope of it being implemented by either of the Tory parties,so unless its a hung parliament,we can forget about it.
Of course Scotland might just come to her senses and leave the UK at the next election. Its more likely that they will continue to be proud of being conned out of billions, and they dont even know its happened. What a sophisticated electorate can do,and what we have done are in stark contrast. We should now go and invest in Northern Rock ,its no dafter than what we have done so far!

The Lib Dems are a total joke party. All MP's should be on the wages of a skilled worker plus legitimate expenses.

Now we must all be fair to Sir Menzies - he will be paid £69,999 only so he is therefore a poor man who should not be taxed any more.

Helen Clark writes, "We do not seek as our first priority to make the rich richer and the powerful more powerful."

I agree with this principle of government and so would the majority of the SNP. But I see no need to hammer the wealthy as PM Thatcher hammered the workers of the North of England and of Scotland with them.

I work in Australia and live / pay my taxes in the UK. If Mr Campbell thinks I am going to pay 95% tax he can think again. Why do our politicians always come up with nonsensical claptrap to appeal for cheap votes.

#74, Staples,

I kindly request that you refrain from the profane. Your language is not appropriate for a website which has general access for all ages. Also, it makes me feel queasy.

#83 Moscow Central

Oh well then! There you have it, judging by your detailed and collaborated opinion I would look foolish not accepting it as gospel.

Annemac has hit the nail on the head - libdems are trying to promote policies which will be fairer all round and I can't see the problem there. It is plainly obvious that someone who needs two jobs to make ends meet is not getting a good deal and it is in these areas that the libdems want to make the changes.
And I've managed to say that without a single mention of the libdems vision on coping with climate change - watch this space tomorrow.

Socialists, people with nothing, that want to share everything.

#86 Speaking of which

There are two adds on this page, a McDonalds Deli sandwhich for £1.99 and a UN world food programme for feeding a child for a year for £19.

Is that a socialist?

I am horrified by the desperation the Lib Dems are showing in mindlessly following every fad and whimsy. This used to be a party one could respect and vote for. Now we have over-the-top proposals on any issue, threatening any sensible thought through action. Climate change is a good example; talk of '£2000' taxes on high cO2 vehicles sounds useful until you realise that high mileage users of medium vehicles emit more CO2 than low mileage users of high band vehicles.
Similarly, the actual effects of income tax changes (though greater equality is indeed needed) have not been thought through.

Sadly the Lib Dems do now need leadership and a nice enough old duffer at the helm isn't enough anymore.

1998 Staples

My number 1 priority on deciding who i will vote for is how that party will best benefit my country and specifically myself. I don't give a damn about African farmers or anyone else. Higher taxes will not create growth in the UK.

What they should be doing is providing tax breaks for companies that provide a certain number of jobs for British citizens (not immigrants). Do the maths, more people working, more tax money in the chancellors coffers.

#89

It would be easier to stomach if all Mings 63,000 wasn't pocket money. When you look at th expenses and perks an MPs salary is easily worth more than £70,000. Theses days that figure includes an awful lot of professionals that aren't MDs we would penalising amongst others doctors and senior miltary officers.

A party does not need to come to power to have its policies, or ones very similar brought in. Take the Green party who never had a chance of winning an ellection, most of its policies have been stolen by other parties who saw a great new way to disguise massive tax hikes. Politics is about popularity, not policy which is why the two main parties are harder to tell apart - they are chasing the same middle ground people. The same thing happened in the US some time ago.

#90

Was that aimed at me? Don't disagree with you, just wondering how it is relevant to my post.

It surprises me to say this, but; 2000 Staples has my support for everything he has so eloquently argued. All you Thatcher's children should go hang your heads in shame. And as for the clown who argues that we cannot create a better society through tax; wtf are we to do? Let the staus quo continue? Also, look at how many of the rampant capitalists are not working here. Right-wing tory bawbags the lot of you.

Annemac; your experiences mirror my own.

AM2, Glasgow / 10:33pm 14 Sep 2007
‘Andrew Allan
You said: “cultural nationalism is no better than racism, and I will have nothing to do with it”

The SNP’s cultural nationalism (particularly glorifying historical victories over the English) may be seen as racially insensitive, or even as a contributory factor in anti-English racism, but to actually call it racism is going too far! Even Kenny MacAskill didn’t accuse the SNP of racism in 2003 when he called for the Bannockburn rallies to be scrapped! ;-)’

AM2, Bannockburn was a pivotal event in Scotland’s war of independence, a struggle you could say to be treated with a certain amount of equality, as far as nationhood is concerned. So commemorating these events can hardly be classed as being cultural nationalism, unless you consider the pursuit of equality within the individualism of nationhood to be cultural nationalism in itself.
It is certainly the case AM2, that there have been erroneous allegations directed towards the SNP, concerning language used in the identification of the Westminster parliament, and Government. Erroneous as they have been only implied, and erroneous too as they have not been substantiated. One of these unsubstantiated allegations concerns the use of the word “London”, when describing the Westminster parliament, or Government. The allegation implies there are racial connotations involved in the use of the word, though in reality the word “London” has been a generic term for these institutions for centuries, and used throughout the UK, and by political figures from all around the world.

My father used to be a Lib Dem councillor in Aberdeen but even he is giving up on them at the moment. Rasing tax rates for the few rich people who actually pay taxes in the UK will not raise any more money and will only penalise the honest. If the Lib Dems were to focus on removing the tax breaks from foriegn corporations and individuals they would get much more money and level the playing field.

I work in one of the few manufacturing plants left in Scotland. On business rates alone we pay £3k per annum for each staff member because we need space for equipment. Would we pay this in China, of course not?

The papers suggest that the SNP and Lib Dems are going to get rid of council taxes and hit us with 3p on income tax. Will this be paid by the superrich who claim to be based in Monaco but have 20 houses in Scotland. I doubt it. They will put their houses into foreign corporations who magically lose money and so pay no tax at all.

We may not like council taxes but at least the superrich pay them. My suggestion is increase the number of bands so that big houses pay lots more and set a requirement for any Scottish public tender that the supplier shows its UK tax records.

#93

We don't have to let the status quo continue. If we create more employment opportunities then the country is going to be more productive and prosper (unless of course you don't want those opportunities).

Does he mean "households" i.e. any number of earners in one house treated as a single entity or does he mean the individual?

97; Opportunities I agree with. However, that is not the nub of the argument on this thread. It is about the public at large wishing to see more tax for the 'super ric'. Read from the article above...

'In calling for higher taxes on the wealthy, the Lib Dems are following growing concern about income inequality. There was public uproar when a private equity boss recently boasted in front of MPs that he paid less tax than his cleaner.

A YouGov poll commissioned by the party shows that even 77 per cent of Conservative voters believe the gap between rich and poor is "too large" while 92 per cent of both Labour and Lib Dem voters agree. And 64 per cent believe the earnings gap has grown wider over the past decade under Labour.

The same number believe that the richest people in Britain should pay more tax while 5 per cent are opposed. But even among Conservative voters, there is a clear majority (55 per cent against 39 per cent).'

You disgaree with the majority?

Dave. If it's households with two working, all it takes is two promoted teachers and they are the super-rich!

What if it's 2 parents with 2 kids at home all on about 17,500? Is this a super-rich family?

As an ex-traditional libdem supporter, it is not that the party has lost direction according to Lord Rodgers, it is the fact it doesn't have a backbone anymore.

My research on ADR in society shows that Justice is usurped with Lord Woolf ambiguously stating "litigation will be avoided whenever possible" in a report entitled "Access TO Justice". As a senior judicial figure I would have thought he would have understood why he was a judge, not that he didn't want to judge wanting to outsource Justice to the mediators. It is disgraceful and New Labour have continued with the misrepresentation (act of bad faith) and are now attacking the Scottish and European legal systems (Denmark have abstained) in same vein as the attack on England & Wales - and they KNOW about my research so there is no excuse.

Charles Kennedy wrote to me on Commons paper that the issues I raised were "extremely important" and delegated them to Menzies Campell from whom I heard nothing further. To say I am disheartened is not the correct word, disillusioned is more appropriate, such that I didn't vote Libdem at the last election.

Corruption has entered British politics and it is showing itself through lack of backbone/cowardice. Gordon Brown has had a measure of success in undoing some of the Blair mess, but I am currently at a loss to understand his "conviction politician" mission and will just have to wait like the rest of us to see where he is going with this.

In the Scottish Parliament the mace represents "compassion, integrity, wisdom, justice" well to the Scots MSPs/MPs - I would like to see some.

Menzies Campbell may have a point about the £18,500 tax bracket / £70,000 etc. Closing the tax loopholes would help everybody - so he has a measure of support for his stance, but whether I will vote Libdem again is another issue.

That is what I'm asking Neil. The opening comment on the story is refering to households then he quickly iterates his singular salary.

Which is it?

Bear in mind that after £35k (I think) you enter the super tax bracket for any monies made thereafter. So Mings salary after £35K is at 40%.

Therefore 2 teachers on promotion are at 40% after £35k, is it fair to lump the 2 salaries together?

#100

Do you think that 70,000GBP is "Super Rich"?

Everyone should pay a reasonable and fair amount of tax. The idea that we should be hammering anyone is the politics of envy just being window dressed. As the former soviet bloc found out, any system which stifles innovation, entrepreneurship and disenfranchises / disincentivises the most able is doomed to stagnate and ultimate failure. It's nice to see that these wonderful socialist ideals are not dead in Scotland - everyone has an equal right to be poor and miserable. Have to rush now - must join the queue at the butchers to buy some bread.

2000 Copies of Socialist Worker for 99p is off his nut. Clearly too long spent standing at street corners trying to sell his three copies of Socialist Nutter to the ungrateful proletariat.

If you want the poor in this country to have access to decent public services, welfare benefits etc. You need to raise the money through taxation to do so. The more taxation you raise, the better you can provide these services. Taxing people highly has the effect of lowering the amount of work they do or are willing to do, and ulitmately reducing the amount of income they make that is taxed. This is especially true for the upper income brackets (I am not talking about the super rich here). Proven economic fact I am afraid, despite the blatherings from economic illiterates on here.

An example of this was when the upper rate of tax was cut from 60% to 40% in 1988 - socialists screamed (indeed Fat Eck interrupted Parliament by claiming that it was "an obscenity", something he seems keen to forget about now), but what happened was that (a) more tax was received from those paying it in the top bracket, and (b) the proportion of the total tax that these people paid went up as well.

If you raise that tax rate, the reverse would happen i.e. poor people would be paying proportionately more, and receiving poorer public services in return.

The super-rich would just pay smart lawyers and accountants to devise tax avoidance schemes, or just up sticks and move, which would take away many of the wealth creators in our society, leading to less jobs, less tax for the governement, and poor people getting poorer.

So the question that needs to be asked is why does 2000 Class Traitors for 99p hate the poor? Is it because that without the misery and resentment of the poor, there would be no market for the sort of envy-driven revolutionary "let's all go back to the Middle Ages when no-one had anything but we were happy" nonsense that he espous

You guys can hide many hammers in the kilts eh????

# 104

£70k is a very good salary for one person but it is hardly super rich. It is also pretty decent for a household income. Someone earning £70k would pay about £20k in tax at present, leaving them about £4k a month net.

A lot of people earning those figures have worked hard to get qualifications and are reaping the rewards. Its not like the money is being handed to them for nothing. This debate always gets hijacked by the relatively few examples of corporate greed. The two things need to be separated. People earning £70k are not fat cats.

If Ming the Stoopit had any policy sense, what he would do would be to raise the threshold at which income tax is paid at all from its absurdly low level to say £10K. That would take millions out of paying income tax altogether.

As a first step, he could raise it to at least the level of the minimum wage. Does no-one find it absurd that those who earn the minimum wage, pay a large chunk of that away in tax?

what a crock!

if you want to be really fair with taxes, the answer is simple.

set a minimum earning level where no one pays tax, around £15,000. after that everyone pays between 10 to 12% on every pound earned with no hiding place for stashing money away. The treasury would be better off: we would find our tax forms down to a single page, and all those greedy B#####s earning 6 million pound bonuses at our expense would have to pay their due tax.

I say at our expense, because if we did not save with banks; If we did not have over paid council executives; if we did not have greedy politicians (from all parties) skimming expenses, we would be better off, and we pay all their salaries directly or indirectly.

Flat rate 12% for everyone.

Another great Ditherer in Chief of the Fib Dems blowing about how the rich will be taxed more.

Is this the best idea they can come up with?
They have been in opposition so long you would think that they would have a few more sensible ideas.

The Fib Dems always remind me of the doormouse at the Mad Hatters Tea Party waking up now and again from it's slumbers to mutter some inane comment and then promptly fall back asleep again.

I think that this party is an anachronistic throwback to some past political landscape where Dinosaurs roamed the eart.

This debate is the only thing Ming Campbell has any chance of achieving. Got him in the news again too so purpose served, I suppose.

#108

My point exactly.

104; It's all comparitive. To someone earning £10 - £15k pa, it may well be. The lib dems can propose whatever they wish, but my point, and the main thrust of the article - as I pointed out in post 100 - is that the majority (although yourself and a few other die-hard capitalists disagree) wish for more taxes for the super-rich, the fat-cats. I am in agreement with the majority - tory, labour, green, whatever...

Good point Kobi but that would be way too sensible

Thank goodness the Liberals have no chance of beinge elected. This tax the rich nonsense is so much hot air and Ming knows it - it's an attempt to get headlines after rumblings in his party that he is 'past it'. On this evidence he is damn near gaga. First of all, the super-rich don't pay tax, they use the best accountants to hide their money offshore or elsewhere - with the full collusion of the alleged socialist in Number 10. They are too difficult a target for Mr Brown. Those who have done the best out of the past 10 years as Ming puts it have also paid the most tax. The 3 million people who pay higher rate tax really shoulder the tax burden for the rest of the population. Who are these so-called 'rich people' who pay 40 per cent tax - their numbers include senior teachers, doctors, police inspectors, and local government managers. But what about private industry some will say, well of the £10 billion paid in bonuses in the City last year, £5 billion went back to the treasury in tax - money for schools, hospitals, and local communities. Taxing the reasonably well off is not the answer. We need to take people on low incomes out of the tax net all together and improve our education system, restoring the link between hard work and success. Great message huh? Work harder, get a good job and the government will take your income away. The political classes are getting dangerously and arrogantly out of touch with those they purport to represent.

There is nothing wrong with people making money provided it's put to good use. The problem with the UK economy is that it rarely is.

As someone on the Herald website very correctly pointed out Kurt Richebacher, an economist of some note, took a particular exception to the current trend of using consumption (i.e. debt) as a linchpin of economic growth.

He insisted that a wealthy economy was one where capital was put to work to create more capital and a rich economy was one where capital appreciation was greater than consumption.

What we have in the UK is the worst of all worlds because real growth has been low but capital appreciation (e.g. increase in house prices) has skewed the figures to make people believe there has been genuine economic growth... There hasn't.

The man is a fossil, the policy of envy caused economic stagnation in the 60's and 70's.
Why not target the Multinationals who avoid taxation on biblical scale!
EDDY

#87 "Is that a socialist?"

See Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Mugabe, Kim Il Sung for details.

The UN never fed anyone btw.

#93 "All you Thatcher's children should go hang your heads in shame. And as for the clown who argues that we cannot create a better society through tax; wtf are we to do? Let the staus quo continue? Also, look at how many of the rampant capitalists are not working here. Right-wing tory bawbags the lot of you. "

Why don't you go and live in Zimbabwe then?

Then you can enjoy the effects of socialism.

#118 tax and spend doesn't help the less well off so sod off.

Usual dark ages politics of envy from a native of the best small minded nation in the world

#118 tax and spend doesn't help the less well off so sod off

Auld Ming came up with this while out pruning his beech hedge, so no need to take any notice, but his hedge is smashing!

Wow...I never realized Scotland was so filled with Communists! You'd think that after a couple hundred years of free market economics proving that allowing people to work as hard as they like and earn as much as they can actually helps everybody, people would have figured it out by now. What do you think those "super rich" do with their money? Where do you think jobs come from? Do you really trust government to handle your money better than you do?

Do you really want a country in which the government determines how much you can make and how much is "too much"? Does NOBODY remember the Soviet Union?

It is amazing that the Lib Dems have a single supporter. But I guess there will always be those who just don't get it, no matter how much evidence is out there.

Like others before, I live and pay taxes here out of choice rather than necessity having the luxury of working away at least half the year. Much more of this nonsence and most of us will have a run at the UK Government similar to what's going on at the NR. Very easy for us to up-sticks and live else-where while spending < 91 days here and paying zero tax. I would happily take all and give back nothing to the greedy, incompetent government. By the way is Campbell including expenses and bonuses, dividends etc? Sure he'll be well over the 70K!!

I have always thought that highly paid public sector jobs should be put out to tender. For example perhaps your deputy or assistant would be willing to do your job for less money than yourself.

If this caught on then perhaps it would also catch on in the private sector - where companies can justify sky high salaries in order to get the best person.

But perhaps the best person is not also the greediest and would be willing to do the job for less. Shareholders and consumers should wake up and give these fat cats a fright.

Be interesting to see what he means. For instance a slight tax rise is one thing but a 90-95% rate is a complete disincentive to try and improve things, leading to stagnation and the brightest leaving for countries where their effort is rewarded rather than taken away.

This just seems the pandering to the problem of envy - rather than solving the issue. If the issue is the gap between rich and poor is too great, it seems madness to artificially restrict peoples own ability to create wealth. Should the solution not be to empower the poor to do better for themselves, by getting off benefits, and then finding better jobs?

2000 Staples for 99p you have missed your calling you ought to be the political/economics editor of one of our national magazines, the Dandy perhaps? Unfortunately your disgraceful posting on the Colin McRae thread (since removed) would almost certainly debar you.

What is really needed is a more socialist approach with more state controls and penal taxation. I know it failed in Zambia under Kaunda but Robert seems to be doing all right, for himself and a few friends anyway, in Zimbabwe.

#118

"The crucial point is a need to restore the balance between the haves, the have nots and the have-a-lot more than everyone else"

If that is what you wish. However what is proposed will have the reverse effect.

Look at any Marxist economy - very little inequality there. No-body (apart from the dictators in charge) has anything. All equal.

In fairness to Campbell, he is playing to the gallery in his party. He is not a stupid man, but his party is made up of lots of numb-nuts, many of whom are still true believers in tax and spend economics. His leadership is under threat, so he has to play to their prejudices, so to avoid a leadership challenge.

#131

Perhaps 2000 Socialist Dictators for 99p hopes that come the revolution, he will be Scotland's Mugabe?

Ming, given the chance I'd like to tell you to put another record on.
Doubtless your pension entitlement as a public servant, and party leader, will be beyond the dreams of many joe schmoes working away for that wee bit more, but hey, the politics of envy is good for the gallery and the old street cred.
Politicians seem to operate on a single issue basis of "more tax, that'll learn them". Well, with mortgages soaring and the SNP/Lib Dems about to do away with Council Tax for the absurd LIT (hands up if you think that will stay at 3% for ever?) what does he suggest we do with the aspirational lower to middle classes? Should they just forget to aspire for fear of being taxed out of the ballpark?
We do so need to undertake a root and branch reform of public sector finance. In Scotland, it is reported that more than half our GDP comes from the public sector...that just isn't sustainable. Waste in the public sector remains frightening, and largely concealed. There is a hidden and very large future shortfall in the public sector pension pot, and no-one seems to tackle that issue. They still work on the absurd budgetary principal of spend it or lose it, so it is no surprise that fiscal prudence does not loom large in your average local authority. So which politician in Scotland will have the balls to say - we have too many Councils, too many Economic Development organisations, quangoes coming out of our ears...and because of these costs, we need to keep taxing people until they have nothing left?
It's just more puerile drivel from a politician looking for a round of applause.

"77 per cent of Conservative voters believe the gap between rich and poor is "too large" while 92 per cent of both Labour and Lib Dem voters agree. And 64 per cent believe the earnings gap has grown wider over the past decade under Labour."

So the solution to the "problem" of the income gap being too large is to reduce the income at the top end... Why is that? Because increasing the income of the poor is too difficult, and we all know how well politicians of all ilks deal with difficult.

Instead of worrying about anything at the rich end of the spectrum (damn you, you have created too many rich people - and people don't see that as an insult?), why not worry about improving the income of the poor. Income levels of the poorest in the UK have increased substantially in the UK over the last 20 years, but a 5% (for example) increase on £100, will always be less than a 5% gain on £1,000 - simple maths. What would you do, not create the 5% gain so that the rich don't get any better off, relative to the poor?

If the only way we know to improve the incomes of the poor is to tax the rich, then these politicians must have discovered a policy set that no other politician in the world has yet deployed!

Oh dear - here we go again the Lib Dems deluding only themselves ....

Listened to their environmental lunancy policies on Five Live today - tax - tax - tax . .

As one caller said - thank god they have no chance of ever forming a government!

Amen

-- I don't give a damn about African farmers or anyone else.

I have plenty repect for African farmers growing food despite marauding gangs, white mercenaries, corrupt governments and corporate indifference unless it's to charge them more for essential items and less for their products.

British farmers must insist that our government stop cultivating new animal diseases, or accepting bribes from international cos. that do this commercially, then spreading these diseases though waterways, soil and air.

The NFU has clout to get big subsidies for the big grain and cattle barons. Is this the only reason for its existence?

i think ming gets a lot more than 60000 even without expenses as he is leader of an official opposition party

still hes no chance libdims are an irrelevance

Just read the headlines but not the replies. I'm sure the feedback will be closely scrutinised by the party managers. Message to Ming - the voters will hammer you before you hammer them. Sounds like political suicide. Leadership becoming a bit of a toil. Eh.

#139

Wrong.

Only the leader of Conservatives is given any extra money for being a leader of an opposition party.

Just another of our unfair political system that Labour has not addressed in the last ten years of government.

I believe the Scottish Parliament arrangements are more equitable.

#7,#8
There's no need to cap wages. There will still be financial incentives even if taxes for the richest increase, or should I say exist. Presumably it's just a matter of taxing at the right level, which has to be more than is being done just now.

# 110

You are perfectly correct in what you are saying. Progressive tax seems to be the fairest system based on the concept the more you earn the more you pay but people misunderstand that under a flat tax system the same logic applies. If I earned £20,000 and you earned £50,000 under flat tax we would both pay the same percentage but thats not the same amount. The problem is the argument is a hard sell. I can only think of maybe 2 examples of the top of my head where countries have adopted a universal flat tax system. The UK certainly wont be moving to any such system soon, although that doesnt mean what you said isn't correct.

Really what the Lib Dems fail to miss like so many do is that poverty and inequality are not one in the same. Poverty can go down at the same time inequality goes up. This is not an exclusive definition of globalisation but it is certainly one of its characteristics. Its almost impossible to find an example where this trend is not taking place. The inequalities gap is the real homogeneity that is taking place regardless of the falsehoods about culture and other aspects. And although it is taking place for a wide number of reasons one of the fundamental problems is because social mobility has died a death. Again this is not exclusive to our shores. Meritocracy is a self fufilling prophecy thats been evident for decades. My only question to the Lib Dems or anyone who agrees with them on this issue is how can it be possible to tackle such a problem using th tax system? Speading wealth is one thing, spreading opportunities is another.

#143 Here, Here. Its just the lib dems who think this is a problem that is unique to this country, or better yet the planet they live on. I was listening to Vince Cable, the guy thinks he is Robin Hood!

How many of you voted Thatcher? We're seeing greed exposed for what it is by every brazen fascist on these boards. Some day the tide is going to turn and you'll all get scewed. I just hope I'm not around to go down with you, but whatever happens, I will be reading the papers with glee to see the scumbags of this nation sucked down a plughole of their own making.

#145

I think its a bit strong to call Campbell a fascist or a scumbag, don't you?

In the states, we had barrons. Oil, steel, coal, railroad and banks to name a few. The average working class worked in sweat shops and did own their soul to the company store.

In the early days the union tried to organize and did in some respects but at a very high cost in lives. One example was the Homestead strike against Carnegie Steel. The union went on strike for better wages and working conditions. Andrew Carnegie (Andrew Carnegie did do a lot of good later in life) decided to visit Scotland and left Mr. Frick to handle the situation. Of course Frick had the Police protect the company against that rabble and in the end several of the workers were killed. Change was coming.

Several years later thru President F. D. Roosevelt, the unions received federal rights and protection. The march was on.

Now it was to tax the rich and tax them we did and still want to. The idea is exactly as stated in this thread.

Beware though. We have a graduated income tax and that is a good idea as is. Also we have deductions which some call loop holes. That is where one has to watch.

When a company borrows money they pay interest. This being a business expense the interest was deductable. That loop hole had to be closed and was. The trouble is that the citizen also borrowed money and the interest was tax deductable. Now the loop hole has been closed step-by-step.

When I was young I bought a house, a car, furniture and did some needed repairs on my house. Yes, I had to borrow money to do the above and yes the interest was deductable. Today the only thing that I know of that is deductable is the interest on a house mortgage. The rest disappeared when we taxed the rich to redistribute the wealth to the poor.

When I was working in a steel mill, I was a local union official. When lay-off happened the persons that were to be laid-off would ask me about how much they could expect on unemployment and I would tell them about 2/3's

100

You say 64% of Labour supporters believe the earnings gap has widened under New Labour in the last decade. Thats an interesting statistic indeed,when one considers that HM Governments own figures confirm this widening over many years now, and I see no reason to assume any change exists.

What is harder to understand is why did they vote Labour then? It sounds like an incredibly stupid thing to have done under these circumstances!

Maybe Gordon Broon should adopt a slogan for his election of Vote New Labour(Same Old Tory).

William of Liberton: What total rubbish you write, chip chip chip. There's a good reason why many people warrant high salaries. Most people can do their 9-5, walk out the door and that's it. Some of us work all hours, never switch off from work and have a hell of a lot of responsibility, pressure and expertise. The UK including Scotland need this calibre of men and women and if you think otherwise you're living in some land of deluded socialism. Stop being jealous and bitter about people that are doing well. Why the hell should high earners be taxed in order to supplement the enormous number of people that are content to trundle through life or live off handouts. You're mindset is typical backward and whinging ...wind your neck in.

#149

Ah, but for some people a job is not a real job unless its a man hitting one bit of metal against another bit of metal.

It is disgusting to put forward the idea that the people who have developed business' or have been successful with their careers should be punished. These people are already taxed too much. If you want to lessen the gap between poor and rich people then start educating people properly. Get some control of the ever increasing number of teenage reprobates that are making England a depressing place to live and teach them some discipline. If their parents were not so distracted with trying to take money away from the top earners in the country then maybe they could focus on bringing up their children properly and hence reducing the number of poor people.

It is disgusting to put forward the idea that the people who have developed business' or have been successful with their careers should be punished. These people are already taxed too much. If you want to lessen the gap between poor and rich people then start educating people properly. Get some control of the ever increasing number of teenage reprobates that are making England a depressing place to live and teach them some discipline. If their parents were not so distracted with trying to take money away from the top earners in the country then maybe they could focus on bringing up their children properly and hence reducing the number of poor people.

149#>Why the hell should high earners.... live off handouts? I assume; included in your above list of those who trundle through life to live on handouts are the Windsor's, all those wearing dog-collars; the idle, irrelevant expensive MP's; the parasites who infest the BBC like ants and many more worthless creatures who are to be found, probably lounging around the Caribbean or in some Stock exchange?
Should you do; you certainly have a point?

Thank heavens this is only talk since everyone knows there's more chance of life on the Moon than having a Liberal Government.

This man, nice as he is as a person, has no idea of the real world. His statement is a prospectus for impoverishment - and the people who are the worst off now would be the worst off of all under such a regime.

But it's fantasy - really the Liberals can say whatever they like as no-one takes a blind bit of notice. Unfortunately, if they can't come up with something better than this they will actually cease to be a safe receptacle for a protest vote

hopefully the auld coffin dodger Sir Mingin' will retire soon huh??

When I read that some companies are paying their top people Millions of pounds annually and making billions in profit and find that their lower paid workers are in receipt of working tax credits I wonder why a government allows companies, making such profits, to pay workers such low wages

as an advocate he was middle rated; as an politician has is an also ran and will never be in a position of power. if there ever was a case of not putting a lib.dem in a position of being a king maker this is it. why £70,000 why not £50,000 given that the average is less that that. then if the drug pushers and those living off the state were made to pay their fair whack then perhaps the taxes may not have to be so heavy. or if the MPs allowances were restricted. he was never much of an economist either.

Yea why don't the richest five percent just immigrate to the Caribbean
... and leave the other 95% of us to starve

... we don't deserve them and all they give to us

... we are just whingers and ne'erdowells who don't appreciate the hard work these rich wan**rs do for us

Does it even matter what Ming says tbh , it's not as if he and his party are ever going to have a major role to ever play in our society.The party from my eyes have been puppets on strings over the last years and this wont change.I find it funny aswell when the SNP done so well that now all Partys are jumping on the Band Wagon asking and wanting extra powers for Scotland , this is solely down to the other partys knowing now that Scottish people have had enuff and now demand this as a must. If other partys go against this all the better for the SNP. It wont be long till Scotland get what they want and NOTHING can stop this now however hard the other partys and people in LONDON try to stop it.And its about time aswell !

160:
I think you'll find that what destroyed our manufacturing base was the poor quality of workmanship, failure to move with technology and most definitely the unions calling strikes every five minutes. But hey, the likes of the Germans were really chuffed with that! Get yourself down the pub and moan to your mates about how unfair your little parochial world is.

I've never voted labour in my life and I don't earn £70,000. However, if I did I would be extremely angry that I was expected to pay more taxes. I have got to where I am in my career through hard work and lots of studying in my spare time and often at my own expense. If he wants to raise money he ahould abolish the parasitic wastes of space we call the monarchy and use the money speant on them for the poor.

I think they should bring back Foulkes rival ...

Ginger minger Kennedy ...

You knew where you were then when they had yon bevvie-merchant in command.

Sir Mingin' is a senile auld buffoon.

#164
Nahh without the Queen ... the economy of London would collapse ... all the Yankee tourists who come to see the Changing of the Guard etc etc

#160

The only fascists are on the left. Usually calling others fascists.

158# What would lucky people be?
Please define; if posible?

these so called wealth creators and entrepreneurs don't actually pay tax surely? Granted at 70k they may, but the Swedish billionaire Mr Hans Rausing (tetra pak inventor) was once shown to be a net drain on our tax system. This stunning feat he achieved by applying for grants for his loss making farms.

This lovely man was asked why he paid no tax, he said that he "did not want his business ruined"
legions of accountants protect such people from tax. They also apparently give less to charities than the less well of according to Francis Wheen, in his book "How Mumbo Jumbo conquered the World."

At 70,000 per annum it would, of course, be different then we might lose all our pr gurus and management consultants, the scented candle industry would be on its knees and where would we look for our fancy goods emporia

#157
These days governments have just become impotent in the face of these large trans-national corporations ...
Governments no longer attempt to oppose the super-rich ... too scared.

Look at Blair and Broon
... they have been bought and paid for by the greedy rich of britain

... Blair was their marketting department ...yea?

Think Lakshi Mittal ... the wealthiest guy in britain ... produces nothing here of course

... but loves living in England cos he knows New LayBore won't do anything to stop his contemptuous greed

#170

I do agree with this as Building Firms apply to build on a section of land and the amount of donations to the Labour goverment that are received from these companys just before every application and all of a sudden they are allowed to build.And this is funny that the committe that decides ye or nae are oh funnily Labour. To me it amounts to bribery and the Labour goverment should be fined for this and the companys involved.I see nothing but the Labour goverment kneeling down to these Companys with money as it benifits them. These Companys also had the ways and means to get Labour to leave out Laws that were gonna be introduced that would hinder there building and ownership of land.

#172
Don't know why our corrupt bast**ds here don't just be sneering and blatantly corrupt like African politicians are

#173
People arnt as silly as the MP`s think the day will come when this all comes back to haunt them espicially in Scotland.

Very easy to promise these things when you are not in power. More promises from unionists who do not deliver?

What a silly old duffer Ming is.

I am a self employed CA with no employees but a burgeoning client list.

Most of what I do does not rely on me being in Scotland. If I suddenly have to exhorbitant tax rates, I, along no doubt with lots of my clients, will decant for sunnier climes and lower taxes.

With a skype "UK" phone number I can be anywhere in the world and people in the UK can call me at UK rates, urgent appointments I can fly back for from, say, Spain, and so long as I am not in the UK at midnight it wont count towards the residency period rules.

Lets hope it wont come to this, in fact, of course it wont, its only the Lib Dems, the party of perennial protest, but never power.

Ming Campbell's got the right idea, the super-rich need to be taxed more but isn't the problem Nicol Stephen? Is he not the liability to their party?

The ordinary man is being fleeced whilst the super rich can afford fancy shinny pant accountants who pass the tax burden onto UK taxpayers and small businesses/traders.

What is the minimum limit to bank with Coutts now? 5 million and a salary to match or £100k provided one can demonstrate a minimum x million into the bank in 2 to 3 years.

How much is Stephen Green of HSBC Holdings salary? £1,250,000 plus bonus (in 2006) £1,750,00. Mr Green is proud to fund wind farms but did he ask HSBC customers their views?

When an equity dealer like Nicola Horlicks is quoted as saying "she doesn't need money" playing the market is like playing monopoly! Perhaps someone should remind her that 'monopoly' money belongs to other people.

As one black woman who suffered the effects of Katrina said;: "ah got ma money honest, how did you get yours?"

Hardworking people have learned to worry about those who have raided the pension pot.

In China 16 billion yuan has apparently been emblezzled from the citizen's social security fund since 1998.

In 2006 the Kremlin accused IBM of stealing £18.7 milion from the state pension fund

How can we forget Maxwell when he plundered the Mirror Group's pension fund to the tune of £400m right under the noses of their employees;journalists.

Money in the Northern Rock got savers running for cover but that fear should have been groundless - it has got out of hand, the building society doesn't rely on savers to do what is does, loan: it relies on the money markets that have dried up!

The new scare? Green taxes and Al Gore! An inconvenient truth...

First, Gore sets up a company that will invest in other companies that will benefit from global warming alarmism

Second, Gore gets some Hollywo

What`s £70k these days? Take the tax and ins off and your left with nowt anyway. Salmonds going to make everyone better off anyway when he scraps the cooncil tax and replaces it with the local I T of 3p in the pound. i`ll be a lot better off.

#175 I hope Salmond keeps his promise of a local income tax to replace the council rates. He says 3p in the pound so I hope he brings it in soon.

Water and sewage will still be charged in addition to 3p in the pound.

No, he never said that, read your Manifesto. He says it will replce the Council tax, so there is no getting out of it now, or is that another Salmond "U" turn.

#183 You forgot tax on your tax.

Corporations get double tax relief the citizens do not.

You pay income tax on your VAT.

You pay income tax on your stamp duty.

You pay income tax on tour council tax.

Makes sure he looks after himself!!!!!!!!!!!!1

#188

You pay income on your council tax, that is to say if you get taxed at 40% income tax and you have a council tax bill of £600.

The money you need to earn to pay your council tax bill is £1,000.

£1,000 less 40% tax is £600. The proles are too thick to understand the concept. But the citizen pays tax on their tax.

Bloody insanity!! AGAIN NO LESS!!

How many remember income tax at 106%?
Can't be done, I hear you say! Yes, and it happened in the UK too. Drove the wealthy right out of the country!!

Remember when football players MAXIMUM LEGAL PAY was 12 Pounds 10/- A WEEK?

SOCIALIST DOGMA shoved the whole country into a depression that really did not end UNTIL MAGGIE THATCHER got her hands on the controls!

High taxes extinguish initiative and hard work AND REWARD SLOTH!!!

SCOTLAND NEEDS MORE BILLIONAIRES NOT LESS!!

I was in the SNUM and was told "Son, don't work so hard, the GOVERNMENT OWNS THIS COAL PIT NOW, and it can't go bankrupt!"
And today there is not a vestige of the Moat Pit at Roslin or it's associated brickworks, that remains!!

REDUCE ALL TAXES. MAKE PEOPLE RESPONSIBLE FOR THERE OWN ACTIONS!

#188 I should add, if a company had a tax bill of £600 and also earned £1,000 this would happen.

£1,000 money earned
-£600 LESS: tax expense
______
£400 Taxable income @ 40% = £160 tax due

You pay £400 tax a company pays £160. Not trivial amounts.

"145. McGinty, Aberdeen / 2:53pm 17 Sep 2007 How many of you voted Thatcher? We're seeing greed exposed for what it is by every brazen fascist on these boards.
"

I was 15 when I resigned.

fascism is a form of socialism btw.

ANd don't Thatcherites want less government, not more?

So how are they fascists?

Correction: I was 15 when Mrs Thatcher resigned.

"160. The true Seeker of the Truth, at home... / 4:38pm 17 Sep 2007 Jethro's Flute; don't tell me where I should go to you little facist."

So you can't tell the difference between capitalism and fascism?

You are stupid.

And if Brown f**ks up, it will be because of his socialist high taxes and it will be the fault of bozos like you who think that the state knows best.

Oh my I really can't be bovered reading this artcle, after broeing my self eariler the day watching part of their confernce on the telly. I sware just about every one who talked looked like their voice were being dubed. It amused me for about 30mins BBC Parlementry what a great channel that is......

But in all honisty who many people earn £70,000 these days.

The current goverment say that an adult over the age of 25 can live on £59 per week (£49 per week if your between 18&24). I have no idea how they caluclate this. Cause it = about 11hours work on min wage these days. personaly I think there calculations are out on this one, our their looking at the cost of living from the early 1990's at the lates on these caulculation.

So Ming gets £60,227 a year £5,018.91 per month, £1,158.21per week. Oh would you look at that Ming gets paid £1100 than the goverment says 1 adult can live on. And then gets expences on top of this. When I go to a job interview in the opther side of the country I have to pay the fare their and back out of my £59 a week

MP's should get real and relasie how well off they are!!! And feel fortent that they don'tneed to go back and live with their parents, just to aford living expences. It would be better if they would prepose scraping MPs expences when they are paid a lot better than most over people.

I wonder when yon staples thing is going to metamorphose into an adult. Gobbledygook figures are just that.

a

As I was saying, yon staples comes over as an immature brat to me.

#195. Itchy : What did you resign from at the age of 15?

Was that the same year that Brain Adams was number wan for about 1/2 the year and Robin hood prince of theves was a big movie?

#200. Jock Tamson: a!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why!!!!!!!

182

SNP manifesto:

We will scrap the unfair Council Tax and introduce a Local Income Tax set at 3p. This will apply at both the basic and higher income tax rate and will not be levied on savings income.

Second homes will continue to be liable to local tax and will make the same level of contribution as present, with payments made through business rates.

Nothing about water and sewage rates which are paid to Scottish Water, not the council.

Eve. I just love that letter.

#199 Jock Tamson

Harldy a mature response my young man. Puberty can be tough, but youl pull through. Please bear in mind some 'patchy grass' on your 'pitch' does not yet make you a man.

Hard to know what else to say to you really. You lack the sophistication or maturity to ake a point or coroborate it.

When will you moaning socialist Neanderthal’s wake up. It doesn’t seem to matter what the subject matter is you always boil it down to nothing more than bitter chip on your shoulder BS about people that have got more money than you. Yes, great plan, tax the hell out of the greedy executives and entrepreneurs and multi-national corporations... and watch Scotland sink into a miserable pit of under achieving depression as everyone with the ambition and brains to achieve something in this country leave.

You’re all full of crap and the arguments you always put forward are about as water tight as the string vests you no doubt wear. Think about what your advocating in taxing the greedy corporations for example...genius! The oil & gas majors are already scaling back infrastructure investment in the North Sea as a direct result of the increased taxes. Put them up as high as you lot bleat on about and the oil revenues you THINK will put Scotland on a par with Norway (another dream!) will last just long enough to build your preferred parliament in Bannochburn (another BS idea some regular numpty came up with here that found a bewildering amount of support).

I’m a proud Scot but this socialist chip on the shoulder crap that exists with the have nots drags this great country down.

208, Miss H, fair enough so far. And, eh?

210, staples. can you speak another language apart from your usual gobbledygook or vindictive slagging?

#213 Jock Tamson

Yes I can, but not with you.

The reason being you never tell me why you object to my points with opinion or fact. You never make an opinion of your own or present a fact.

So as far as you're concerned my man, fight hot air with hot air, that's what I say.

Anyone else, happy to have a debate, that's why I logged in after all.

214, staples. You are the hot air. All slagging and no comment. You tried with your statistics about tax on tax. We all know we pay tax on tax. try buying some thing and see how many times you have already paid the tax on it.

If you were saying something new instead of just being someone new.........

Eve.

It is people like you that need to be engaged, given hope that there are plenty jobs out there where people earn over £100k. Many have degrees attached to them admitedly, but the problem these days is far too much emphasis on being written off unless you have a University degree. Look at Tom Hunter and many others who have made millions more than many graduates. In their day one could get a job without a degree and go onto have a really successful life, paying taxes on the way.

Ask yourself, what's a degree in german got to do with being a marketing person? I asked that question when I saw someone get a degree that knew nothing about marketing.

If you've got a brain use it. Sadly some folk don't and that's why we have to pay taxes. Every decent society should protect the vulnerable or we will end up like America, kids sleeping in toilets with their parents because there is no system to help them other than queques at 5pm for a bed for the night at a horrible hostel. Thank goodness the UK hasn't got that bad.

Buying and selling, that's where the money can be be made, get the price right and you are half way there, or get something with royalties attached to it. Remember, a janitor inventor the vacum cleaner.

Pop down to the Princes Trust or ask someone to help. If you've got determination and stamina (and you must have to watch Lib Dems on TV.... Nicol Stephen must cost them a lot of votes) then you will do well.

I agree with you on those on the dole figures.

Don't let anyone think you haven't got anything to give to society. If anyone says that, they are talking crap. Such people have a problem, not you.

217. No man's land.

217 The opposite of independence is dependence.

Karinm, are you participating in this 'debate' as part of a school project?

Is this idiot for real?

Did he receive his knighthood for such idiocy.

Scotland, when she becomes independent will need all of her entrepreneurial spirit and risk-takers.

Such imbecilic mutterings will surely be ignored. If not, witness a second clerances - this time purely voluntary.

Let's hope, as one previous poster stated ,that this idiot doesn't stand a chance of being elected to a position of power and authority.

#189 Staples (and prior posts)

I hate taxes. I agree with your take on this. We earn and are taxed...we pay taxes on what we buy. We pay taxes on taxed commodities. Everything is double/treble taxed. I hate this. Governments should be more open, but they're not. Solution?

easy on the spurs there, Dunnie.

#225 Karin M

"Say for example that London said okay we will hand over half the reserved powers now with the rest in ten years would that be acceptable or not?"

What half?

#221 Dunnie.

Dunnie! How goes it?

Karin M

I want defence & fiscal control.

225, karinm. I would agree if it worked in modern practise but it is only a fool who ignores history and relies on the speak of the politicians we have today to represent us.

Galen Milne. You appear to be wearing the wrong cape.

#226 - Jock- how are you?

Easy on the spurs? Nah! When I hear such guff I take the whip out, never mind the spurs ( Christ, this will get the S&M crowd posting in a hurry!!).

It just astounds me that the man would say that he would "hammer" anyone earning over 70K. He may have a point about tax dodgers but it's a very broad tar brush he is using.

As a small businessman I loathe -

-Bureaucrats who create waste and wallow and hide in obfuscation; and

- Politicians who attempt to bribe me with my own money then demand more through unnecessary taxes;

#229 - Neil - cheers mate! Doing well enough. Gorgeous autumn day here. About to have a cold one on the patio. Cheers!!

#209. Jock Tamson: You do?

a

a

a

Me I'm no fan of any of the vowels. I perfer the letter S

Hello again Dunnie!

;-)

karinm. is that all?

240, Eve, it's a typo preference - when I'm feeling childish.

Eve, you should have experienced my vowels today - chicken and broccoli from Sunday.

This is p¡sh. I'm, offski.

Sorry, Dunnie. Just been washing the dishes. Reckon that war the newspaper headline hammering the over 70's - years or wage.

#216. Faye: I know

I graduated this year with a BSc with Hons, it's still a nightmare looking for work, it feels almost the same way it did before I got my degree.

Though I've benfited and now relise my correct carrer goal, there the job I want to do BUT the ones I need to do first are the one that are difficult to find.

It's may shaky work experence record thats makeing empolers turn me down before they talk to me. BUT my work experence is only in the state it was because of my doggy form filling in skills and poor comperhention of job discrition, you can't mettion these sort of things on a job application form or CV, So I get knock back for the most simpilsist jobs I tell you and I have a degree.

I'm too old for the prince trust, unless they've raised the age to 30!!!! BUT hey I've teird to get in to volentry work and that seems difficult to get in to, too. Anit amasing it's near impossible to work for nothing these days.

P.S. I think its unfare that you suggest I'm no try when I've tierng myself out reading job profiles only to find that I have the degree BUT NOT the required 2 years + work experence. I never said I was ready to give up.

I was just distracting myself from the rejects from stupied jobs I could do so easily, the lates rejects have become so hurtful.

Oh and I get the degree in Germen being seen as good for marketing (inperticular if yer seling thing to Germen consumers or have branches in Germany its handy) or a degrees a degree to some empoyers it shows your capably of learning BUT they normaly look for the top degree marks.

This is sure to bring the ex-pats and tax-refugees I know pouring back to Scotland with their many billions.

Dearest Eve - I suggest this with sincerity - perhaps you should spell-check everything you write and/or post.

Or are you just taking the mickey?

I would raise the higher band tax rate by enough to cover the re-introduction of student grants and the abolition of tuition fee's.

Anyone who complains - gets a 5% (greedy b@st@rd) surcharge.

Colonel. Sah. If I might suggest, the bastards who need bleeding are the ones who go straight from Playstation to Sandhurst and beyond. What with their houses in Chelsea and all that....

#227 Galen Milne

"The sooner all the selfish Scots up and leave for sunnier climes the sooner"

If Scotland becomes independent I would rather it was closer in nature to Switzerland than to Albania. Your attitude would warm the heart of Enver Hoxha.

Night all. Been fun - better than the telly.

karinm -

First- I didn't know that Eve has dyslexia. My apologies Eve.

Second - karinm - cheap shot using such a condition to make a point - whatever it is.

Third - Are you Eve?

260 - Good night Jock!

"Better than the Telly?'

A poor comment on the state of your telly.

#257 -weeshooie1 - see posting 261. Honestly, I didn't know.

I think karinm's 256 posting was juvenile.

Jock
I was thinking - we could re-assign all the MI5 bods who infiltrate political parties, to join golf clubs, gentlemens clubs, swanky hotel bars, race courses, yacht clubs, cassino's and the like.

Engage the blighter's in seemingly Innocent conversation, then slap fixed penalty notices on their foreheads when they slip up.

Wouldn't really take that much re-training and would rake in a fortune.

264 -Col Bilmp

Interesting idea; however, one must first have the power to reassign.

Secondly, such types generally don't like to be reassigned and have nasty remedies to what they see as a threat.

Sure you want to go there?

Finally, do you really believe that there are that many who would warrant reassignment to so many establishments which you outlined?

To paraphrase a Monty Python skit - " Good god man, there's a Unionist under my bed! There's even one in my wife's bra!!". Or perhaps two?

#251
Eve ...
I can empathise with your predicament ...

Being oan the buroo is a pain ... but don't let it get to you be patient and keep plugging ...
Yer dream job is oot there ... someone somewhere wants a talented lady like yer guid sel hen ...
Dinnae fash lassie ... as the auld phrase goes.

As for watching Sir Mingin' and the FibDems oan telly ... nahh

... worst way to occupy your unemployed hours of enforced leisure is to sit and watch the goggle box all day.
Best thing to do is switch off the Idiot's Latern and never put it back on again ... in fact do what I did to my telly I put a hammer through it's screen.

Never watched tv for 18 months now and I don't miss not having one either
... I read more books now
... and I get out and meet folk

... real people ... rather than the imaginary one you delude yourself that you are meeting when you watch the telly

Brilliant fun ...
Obviously I enjoy the Internet too ... but you can't beat the company of other human beings.

Your employment situation will change ...
... don't worry Eve ...!!!

Ming, something ming'n.
Add his pension rights and tax it all now might get a different, eh, sense of smell?

#261. Dunnie: Aye, it's time like this I wish I wasn't cause then I wouldn't have such big gaps in my work experence part and would at least get interviews and no ignored.

Though in an up side it's made me very determind, just wish it work in the work place as well as it did in education.

#266. Maria Thomson la guapa: I hope so!!

Any way I'm really sleepy now, so I'm going to get some sleep so I can job hunt like mad tomorrow. Well thats my plan any way.

night night

268 -

Eve - Again I say, I honestly didn't know you were dyslexic.

My profound apologies. I felt - and deservedly so - like an absolute shit when other posters so quickly pointed out the error of my ways and posting.

Hang in there and follow Maria's wise advice - posting 266.

Best regards, Dunnie.

265. Dunnie, Canada

I admit it was more of a flight of fancy than an actual policy initiative.

But if I were an SNP assigned spook or worse still a deep-cover agent-provocateur, I would kill for the chance to get away from hanging about the sort of places my targets frequent.

And the expense account and clothing allowance would have to be increased tenfold.

AT least the booze account!!

Nice to see from the comments above that I'm considered "super-rich", a "fat-cat", etc, etc, as my salary hovers around the magic £70,000 figure (before the full UK tax comes off). Maybe you would all prefer, as some other poster commented, that I spent just another few weeks a year outside the UK, so I would pay no income tax, plus then I could sell my house and also pay no council tax. Doesn't seem to me like I (or others in my position) would be missed, and I could snipe at the whingers from abroad.

Sour grapes!!! Why should those fortunate enough to come up with a good business model be punished in an effort to look after the people earning less?

Earning more through innovation and hard work should not equal an unjust taxation.

The only inome gap needing closed is the gap between low earners and those on Benefits. Force benefit claiments to get off their backsides, problem solved.

Everyone wants it handed on a plate today. Get a life.

problem with this reasoning about higher taxes on those who make more than L70,000. Sooner or later less taxes are brought in and to get more into the exchequer they will nedd to lower that limit eventually down to L10,000.

sorry, i got bored after 60 comments. we need to stop all the legal loopholes and make the rich pay their dues, so maybe i can stop having to pay tax on my tips,

#277 - get a better job and you wont need tips!

G.

#277 - The rich pay their dues? So, 70K plus is defined as rich?

Get a life or a check on reality. The hard-working middle class shoulders the burden in every so-called democratic state.

By the way, tips? I thought the Brits didn't tip - at least in pubs.

#278
it aint that easy, and i cant afford not work. i could go on the dole i suppose and then the government could train me 4 something better

#279
you are right the brits dont tip, so wot i get should be mine, not the tax mans. no i dont think 70k is rich although i would like to earn it. i mean the rich the people who can afford to pay people to tell them all the loopholes. and wot about people like me, working class. i go to work everyday i have to. i pay my taxes. i work hard. i am sorry if i offended

281 -Mulop - you didn't offend.

And you're right, what you get in terms of tips, you should keep. Just don't tell the bastards.

Just because I earn over 70K please don't define me as rich.

I am self-employed. I compete for every penny. My wife and I have put three children through university - no subsidies, grants etc, - and they have graduated debt-free.

Despite not being a burden on the state, I remain in one of the highest tax brackets in Canada.

It just makes my blood boil when I read of a politician - Scottish or Canadian - who says that he wants to "hammer" a taxpayer because of an arbitrarily set income limit.

281 - Mulop - don't give up. Don't despair. Hang in there.

282
although i dont know a lot about tax law in this country, i have been told i pay taxes on my tips anyway. 503l.

and again i am sorry i didnt mean to imply people who earn 70k a year are rich. i just cant explain my self very well.

and good for u. i sometimes wish i had gone to uni, but alas i am now stuck where iam.

how did u reply before i sent my message?

ah u didnt it just took me to long to reply

285 - I didn't , just coincidence.

No, you are not stuck where you are. Believe in yourself. If you do, there is a way.

My dad died when I was 15. No life insurance, rented house - nothing.

I worked in lumber camps, horse ranches and farms to put myself through uni.

First rule a boss told me was that in life, " You owe nobody nothing, and yourself everything".

Sounds corny, but it is oh so true. Remember it.
Keep your chin up. A smile costs you nothing. So Ok. I know, enough of the sentimental stuff.
Cheers, Dunnie.

What?
The Labour Party taxing the rich?
This is new!

Who really cares what Cambell says, he will never be in a position of power to modify the tax system.

I earn well in excess of 100k per annum, but I work very hard for it. If entrepreneurs and business people are taxed more heavily, as in France, these talented people will simply move away from the UK.

"I'll hammer the rich "

The world is so full of examples of how destructive this type of economic policy is to an economy,I can't believe that politicians still make statements like that. Zimbabwe is probably is most obvious example. They have almost completely dismantled their economy there (in the name of soak the rich of course) and result is massive unemployment and starvation. A 95% super tax would be no different except that the thugs would dressed as the tax man.

#273. RobertNP: Aye, good advices, though should really use the speech recognition software more often BUT the accuracy is yet to be what it should be and I've stupidly add in wrong spellings of words.

Is ReadPlease like text help read and write cause that starts reading things completely at random when the tool bar is up, when I'm on-line.