Yes, there is an overwhelming case for a wealth tax. But it is necessary to get the figures in perspective: total UK debt is the highest in the world at about 10 times a GDP of over 2 trillion. Most of this is bank debt for which the government is guarantor of last resort. The left’s redistribution programme is not in itself adequate any more than the right’s austerity programme is: the banking sector must be put through bankruptcy.
Michael Meacher
27th January, 2012
One assumption dominates the start of 2012. It will be an extremely grim year as the public starts having to pay down the deficit in real earnest, but they will grudgingly accept the substantial pain involved so long as it is fairly shared. It certainly isn’t, however, and the growing realisation of this could well prove the government’s Achilles heel in this year’s bumpy handling of austerity.
In These New Times 