Tax. It’s an emotive subject. This is why the government has turned to taxing the dead. After all, they can’t vote anymore. The more serious point is that if you die, leaving money why should you not contribute to those who are living? There are others why might disagree with Andy Burnham’s comments. £20,000 on death isn’t enough and he wants an even more progressive tax. This means more. My view is that taxing people more after their death is not acceptable and that the government can’t and should not have to provide everything for everyone. Having said that help needs to be provided for those who need it. It’s a tight wire to tread. Yet most of you seem to object to more taxation and the policy isn’t as popular as Mr Burnham might suggest.
I was joined by Lord Adonis, the Transport Minister. He said the election was about the future for the country, that it was a better place than in 1997, that the UK was very fair, that we didn’t need to worry about MP’s and their expenses as it had all been cleared up, that Boris couldn’t have all the money he wanted for London’s transport and that Labour were the best party for the way ahead. He justified banks and their bonuses, didn’t think there were too many government jobs and organisations and he set out some ideas for you to think about.
It would be fair to say that most of you didn’t really buy what he had to say. Maybe no matter what Gordon says you think his time is up. “A Future Fair For All” is the Labour Party’s new slogan. I am not sure that is very good English, to be honest. And the word Fair is what we discussed. Some of you suggested that it should be “Fare” given how much tax we pay.
In another direction we discussed the increased and earlier sexualisation of our children. I am not sure it’s happening any earlier however responsibility of companies and their advertising strategy should be reviewed. Whether legislation would help is another matter. And on the subject of soup – we had a marvellous recipe for barley soup as long as you can go to your butcher to get some bones!
I am back tomorrow from 5pm with Business & Property