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This from Maggie Nelmes, Ventnor. Ed
Rishi Sunak’s speech at the Tory Party Conference left me in no doubt that he is out-of-touch with the general public and has no clear vision for the future.
It is what the Prime Minister did not say that set alarm bells ringing. He made no mention of the UK’s biggest crises and how he would tackle them. These include, in no particular order of priority:
- The ever-growing NHS waiting lists
- Crumbling school buildings
- The Cost-of-Living Crisis, forcing more and more people into poverty and reliance on food banks
- Fuel poverty
- Ever-widening social inequality
- Climate breakdown, threatening our economy, health, welfare and survival.
Clear solutions to these problems
Yet, according to Tax Justice, there are clear solutions to these problems through fairer taxation. These are as follows:
- Close tax loopholes and introduce a wealth tax on the super-rich. This would raise some £50 billion for the NHS and public services (renationalized, I assume), as well as reducing inequality;
- Do not abolish inheritance tax, as some Tories have suggested. This tax applies to only the 4% wealthiest estates, but adds some £8 billion to the state coffers;
- Tax the emissions of private jets, oil giants, and other big polluters. This will provide some £23 billion a year to fund renewable energy and public transport (also renationalized);
- Tax the 350 richest families 2% of their wealth. This will provide enough money to build 145 thousand new truly affordable homes or pay the wages of a third of NHS staff (fairer wages, I hope);
- Increase windfall tax. Some big oil and gas corporations have made enormous profits from the energy crisis. BP made £4 billion in three months, yet instead of investing it in renewable energy for the future, chose to reward its directors and shareholders handsomely.
Benefiting from the loop holes
Rishi Sunak himself benefits hugely from the non-domiciled status tax loophole that does not tax income and capital gains earned overseas. I therefore doubt very much that he would ever close this and other tax loopholes. Tax Justice maintains that a quarter of all UK taxpayers pay a higher rate than our multi-millionaire Prime Minister.
Our taxation system is unfair because it taxes income from work more than income from wealth.
If we want change, we have to fight for it
Will the Labour Party tackle the gross inequalities in our society? If we want change, we have to fight for it. Now is the time to make our voices heard. Only if a political party is sure of electoral support will it dare to stick its head above the parapet and introduce bold changes in its manifesto.
More likely, as some predict, the Labour leadership will wait until they win the general election next year before announcing any reforms to our antiquated political system that we so badly need in order to have more representative governments.
A number of campaign groups are pressing for political reform. I would recommend the following, all of which have websites and welcome supporters:
For electoral reform, constitutional reform, reform of the House of Lords, and more:
For fairer taxation:
To bring public services back into public ownership:
