The mansion tax isn’t a revolution - but judging by the screaming, you’d think Rachel Reeves had just seized the Home Counties and nationalised the Cotswolds.
I am an old woman living in a house we could afford to buy in the 1980s and it breaks my old heart.
Talk about legacy? I want to leave a world with clean air, great public transport, functioning schools & hospitals and public parks where children can play safely. Tax is a good thing! It pays for all the important stuff!
Well said Ann, taxes are essential for a healthy society. I don't like that I will pay about £5 extra on my pensions after April but I reckon I'll cope! What I can't abide is the hypocritical moaning and gnashing of teeth about 'Broken Britain' accompanied by the constant refrain of 'Stealth Taxes', 'Death Taxes' and the constant shrill vilification of the Chancellor and what are, in the harsh light of reason, baby step tax rises and hopefully a lomg overdue start to the wealthy and obscenely rich contributing to the State from which they have massively benefited since May 1979.
I couldn't agree more. I am also an old, cash-poor woman living in a house I could never have afforded to buy. I inherited four-fifths of it from my parents, and it's probably now worth £1million, but I think that million should be taxed for the benefit of all. My children don't need to inherit that much! I am grateful to The Bear for pointing out that there will be a deferral scheme and protections for cash-poor people. Why, I wonder, did the Chancellor not emphasise that? Knowing this has removed my last reservation about the tax. Bring it on.
I am fed up with associates saying we need to get Starmer, Reeves & Labour out, the dreadful budget etc. I say that the previous 14 + years were worse! I get a shocked look and asked how as a farmers wife I can even think these things! I respond with, I didn't vote for them, and I don't like all they have done by any means, but they are getting some stuff done. I want more, Gibb's gone would be a start, stopping large donations or even any from overseas to political parties. Stopping 2nd+++ jobs for MP's, getting us back into the EU etc, etc. Farmers do need better pay for goods, instead of Tesco's etc doubling or even trebling their profits in 3 - 4 years! Banks too, I could go on.....
No Linda, please do go on. It's quite remarkable how the 14 years of Tory misrule have been erased from memory. Johnson the bloviating charlatan, Truss the economic fantasist and Sunak who didn't know how to fill his car nor the price of a loaf. Now we have wall to wall coverage of Farage with his pub bore, 'man of the people' schlick and Badenoch ranting about just about everything. Please go on Linda, we need to keep the flickering embers of a civil society going!
Bear’s back! (please note judicious use of apostrophe) and with a vengeance. Honestly if very wealthy people with very high incomes had been taxed an additional 2% the country would have groaned with satisfaction, the supposedly non-existent black hole would have been backfilled and the newspaper articles would have been the same. So why not do just that? The furore is going to come, let’s make it worthwhile and stop making people pay tax that they would have otherwise not paid because Reeves has fixed taxable allowances. I’m not entertained by the thought of those with only a simple state pension being forced to pay tax on it for the first time when the alternative is a person with a billion or more has to pay £20m extra. (Please see R Burgon’s MP explanation of tax of that amount on one billion pasta).’
For me - as a Northerner- the main thing is that £2500 would only just bring the figures up to what the higher band council taxes have been for many years in places such as Workington or Hartlepool. Proportionally the poor or not so poor pay significantly more of their income on council tax, and even though houses are significantly more affordable than 'down south' many still have to rent.
We are talking about a section of society who having spent lifetimes largely insulated from the difficulties facing the rest of the population by social, cultural and financial capital.
This has become normalised and embedded into a deep seated belief in their own entitlement and a false sense of moral worth.
Whilst at the same time looking down on and stigmatising those who don’t fit into this part of society.
Making it OK for politicians of certain hues to attack the tax having previously voted for children to go hungry.
Decided to listen to Animal farm today for a take on where we are in this cycle. Your post slots in nicely just as I am reaching the point where two legs become better again…
The bit that always gets me in Orwells novel, is re/ to capitalism when the pig always wants so much more not satisfied with the ample of food..we know who represents the pigs today..
I guess they could all take in lodgers to help pay their increase. There's plenty of families living in emergency housing that I'm sure would love to rent a few rooms in a mansion. Honestly, what planet are they on. They need to pay up and shut up, they've been remarkably lucky that this hasn't happened long before now.
Great to have you back from a magnificent part of the world which Trump accused recently of evicting white people and he refuses to let their representatives into the USA. (But he won't evict Musk and Thiel). On the council tax issue, this merely reflects years of trying to appease voters by deferring the revaluation of their houses. Council Tax, or rates, was imposed in proportion to the rental value of the property occupied. When revalued each five years, the poundage charged would be adjusted downwards so as not to be an increase above the amount previously charged or inflation. The valuation bands now used were yet another appeasement of complaints. I share your amazement of the press reporting which seems to be aimed to work like propaganda.
Dear Bear, I’m glad that you’re back. As always you give clarity to what has become an hysterical situation. I think that if there was a cure for wealth accumulation especially for multi millionaires and billionaires we could solve so much. Is there a point at which one has gained so much wealth that they’re triggered into only wanting more and going to great lengths to never want to give a fraction back for the benefit of society. I find that the least well off give so much more without complaining. End of waffle. Have a good weekend.
Welcome home Bear! Someone clever (apparently) said “There’s only two sure things in life, Death, and Taxes” and it appears to me that some of the better off in society need to face up to the encroachment of both. I say this with a hint of irony, as I’ve just received a new tax code from HMRC, suggesting that, of the first of the two small private pensions I receive only the first £10 will be tax free. In the meantime I’ve been viewing flats with my son in the area I used to live - 1 bedroom leasehold flats with sub 100yr leases for £200k and in council band C (in that area around £1600pa)!
Such a contrast when you come back to England from somewhere like that, ditto India. I hadn’t taken much notice of this issue as I don’t do MSM. But the tax threshold thing is annoying. I have a £3k a year company pension on top of my state pension and was cross enough last year when tax started to be payable.. it’s not much tbh, but counting the pennies you know. Always hoping that the lowest band will go up. So in the budget they said oh pensions will go up in April! Yippee so will the amount of tax clawed back which to my mind is stupid. I actually have a daughter (38 with an MA) who works with profoundly disabled children including quadriplegics and she has almost exactly the same income as I do e.g. £13.5 K and that’s working in a school 5 days a week and one to one with. 9 year old one or two of the weekend days every week..the bottom threshold should be 15 or even 20K. You can’t live on it.
I am massively lucky because my very small house is paid up so I am secure but energy, mobility and everything else is often a nightmare to afford.
Welcome back Bear! Sorry you've encountered a country on the brink of collapse that is full-on prosecuting minorities that have committed no other crime than be rich. I guess that was bound to happen when house prices have been inflated for years and utterly out of proportion with people's salaries and cost of living. But we all know a good Dickens narrative is the key to win hearts so cue to people who managed to buy a house in the 70s for the price of a French course at the Institut Français today. Given it's very unlikely that I ever manage to rent on my own (buying is out of the question, resuming French classes ditto) they can have their mansion and eat it for all I care.
I am an old woman living in a house we could afford to buy in the 1980s and it breaks my old heart.
Talk about legacy? I want to leave a world with clean air, great public transport, functioning schools & hospitals and public parks where children can play safely. Tax is a good thing! It pays for all the important stuff!
Well said Ann, taxes are essential for a healthy society. I don't like that I will pay about £5 extra on my pensions after April but I reckon I'll cope! What I can't abide is the hypocritical moaning and gnashing of teeth about 'Broken Britain' accompanied by the constant refrain of 'Stealth Taxes', 'Death Taxes' and the constant shrill vilification of the Chancellor and what are, in the harsh light of reason, baby step tax rises and hopefully a lomg overdue start to the wealthy and obscenely rich contributing to the State from which they have massively benefited since May 1979.
I couldn't agree more. I am also an old, cash-poor woman living in a house I could never have afforded to buy. I inherited four-fifths of it from my parents, and it's probably now worth £1million, but I think that million should be taxed for the benefit of all. My children don't need to inherit that much! I am grateful to The Bear for pointing out that there will be a deferral scheme and protections for cash-poor people. Why, I wonder, did the Chancellor not emphasise that? Knowing this has removed my last reservation about the tax. Bring it on.
I am fed up with associates saying we need to get Starmer, Reeves & Labour out, the dreadful budget etc. I say that the previous 14 + years were worse! I get a shocked look and asked how as a farmers wife I can even think these things! I respond with, I didn't vote for them, and I don't like all they have done by any means, but they are getting some stuff done. I want more, Gibb's gone would be a start, stopping large donations or even any from overseas to political parties. Stopping 2nd+++ jobs for MP's, getting us back into the EU etc, etc. Farmers do need better pay for goods, instead of Tesco's etc doubling or even trebling their profits in 3 - 4 years! Banks too, I could go on.....
No Linda, please do go on. It's quite remarkable how the 14 years of Tory misrule have been erased from memory. Johnson the bloviating charlatan, Truss the economic fantasist and Sunak who didn't know how to fill his car nor the price of a loaf. Now we have wall to wall coverage of Farage with his pub bore, 'man of the people' schlick and Badenoch ranting about just about everything. Please go on Linda, we need to keep the flickering embers of a civil society going!
Bear’s back! (please note judicious use of apostrophe) and with a vengeance. Honestly if very wealthy people with very high incomes had been taxed an additional 2% the country would have groaned with satisfaction, the supposedly non-existent black hole would have been backfilled and the newspaper articles would have been the same. So why not do just that? The furore is going to come, let’s make it worthwhile and stop making people pay tax that they would have otherwise not paid because Reeves has fixed taxable allowances. I’m not entertained by the thought of those with only a simple state pension being forced to pay tax on it for the first time when the alternative is a person with a billion or more has to pay £20m extra. (Please see R Burgon’s MP explanation of tax of that amount on one billion pasta).’
For me - as a Northerner- the main thing is that £2500 would only just bring the figures up to what the higher band council taxes have been for many years in places such as Workington or Hartlepool. Proportionally the poor or not so poor pay significantly more of their income on council tax, and even though houses are significantly more affordable than 'down south' many still have to rent.
Welcome back Bear. 👍🙂
We are talking about a section of society who having spent lifetimes largely insulated from the difficulties facing the rest of the population by social, cultural and financial capital.
This has become normalised and embedded into a deep seated belief in their own entitlement and a false sense of moral worth.
Whilst at the same time looking down on and stigmatising those who don’t fit into this part of society.
Making it OK for politicians of certain hues to attack the tax having previously voted for children to go hungry.
Welcome back Bear!
Sorry it's been a bumpy re-entry back into the media frenzy that is British politics these days🙄😢
Your summary is spot on as ever & raised a welcome giggle as ever.
Take care 🙃
Decided to listen to Animal farm today for a take on where we are in this cycle. Your post slots in nicely just as I am reaching the point where two legs become better again…
The bit that always gets me in Orwells novel, is re/ to capitalism when the pig always wants so much more not satisfied with the ample of food..we know who represents the pigs today..
It is quite scary how accurate 1984 and Animal farm seem today. The warnings are there but not for all to see apparently.
I guess they could all take in lodgers to help pay their increase. There's plenty of families living in emergency housing that I'm sure would love to rent a few rooms in a mansion. Honestly, what planet are they on. They need to pay up and shut up, they've been remarkably lucky that this hasn't happened long before now.
Great to have you back from a magnificent part of the world which Trump accused recently of evicting white people and he refuses to let their representatives into the USA. (But he won't evict Musk and Thiel). On the council tax issue, this merely reflects years of trying to appease voters by deferring the revaluation of their houses. Council Tax, or rates, was imposed in proportion to the rental value of the property occupied. When revalued each five years, the poundage charged would be adjusted downwards so as not to be an increase above the amount previously charged or inflation. The valuation bands now used were yet another appeasement of complaints. I share your amazement of the press reporting which seems to be aimed to work like propaganda.
Dear Bear, I’m glad that you’re back. As always you give clarity to what has become an hysterical situation. I think that if there was a cure for wealth accumulation especially for multi millionaires and billionaires we could solve so much. Is there a point at which one has gained so much wealth that they’re triggered into only wanting more and going to great lengths to never want to give a fraction back for the benefit of society. I find that the least well off give so much more without complaining. End of waffle. Have a good weekend.
this hand-wringing from people with enormous assets just makes me sick.
For heaven's sake, if they are going to tax some wealth, at least they should make it worthwhile.
All this fuss for £400million?
- what a waste of political capital
Welcome home Bear! Someone clever (apparently) said “There’s only two sure things in life, Death, and Taxes” and it appears to me that some of the better off in society need to face up to the encroachment of both. I say this with a hint of irony, as I’ve just received a new tax code from HMRC, suggesting that, of the first of the two small private pensions I receive only the first £10 will be tax free. In the meantime I’ve been viewing flats with my son in the area I used to live - 1 bedroom leasehold flats with sub 100yr leases for £200k and in council band C (in that area around £1600pa)!
Such a contrast when you come back to England from somewhere like that, ditto India. I hadn’t taken much notice of this issue as I don’t do MSM. But the tax threshold thing is annoying. I have a £3k a year company pension on top of my state pension and was cross enough last year when tax started to be payable.. it’s not much tbh, but counting the pennies you know. Always hoping that the lowest band will go up. So in the budget they said oh pensions will go up in April! Yippee so will the amount of tax clawed back which to my mind is stupid. I actually have a daughter (38 with an MA) who works with profoundly disabled children including quadriplegics and she has almost exactly the same income as I do e.g. £13.5 K and that’s working in a school 5 days a week and one to one with. 9 year old one or two of the weekend days every week..the bottom threshold should be 15 or even 20K. You can’t live on it.
I am massively lucky because my very small house is paid up so I am secure but energy, mobility and everything else is often a nightmare to afford.
Welcome back, Bear. I have missed your vexed analysis!
Ah, it’s good to have you back Bear.
Great summary as per usual 💯
Welcome back Bear! Sorry you've encountered a country on the brink of collapse that is full-on prosecuting minorities that have committed no other crime than be rich. I guess that was bound to happen when house prices have been inflated for years and utterly out of proportion with people's salaries and cost of living. But we all know a good Dickens narrative is the key to win hearts so cue to people who managed to buy a house in the 70s for the price of a French course at the Institut Français today. Given it's very unlikely that I ever manage to rent on my own (buying is out of the question, resuming French classes ditto) they can have their mansion and eat it for all I care.