Sunday, October 14, 2007

Death Is Not The End




The black eyebrowed, silver haired devil has started redistributing wealth. Stealing from the poor, giving to the rich. Patrick Collinson's summing up in yesterday's Guardian Money section makes you want to turn Green, not with envy but with disgust.

£600,000 tax-free, up from £300,000. Due to rise to £700,000 tax-free by 2010/11.

Patrick's been banging on about inheritance tax. Here's two letters from Guardian readers. From the rich south of England, of course.

Firstly, this from someone who I assume is a rich bastard pretending to be a cynical batten down the hatches kind of guy in order to get a letter in The Guardian:-

"Patrick Collinson can 'see no reason' why 'children of 50-plus need to inherit large sums'.
I can think of two. Firstly, they've somehow got to fund their children's education, as the state no longer does this, and secondly they've got to fund their own retirement, together with any medical and personal care, as the state no longer does this, either. You can see why some people think that if the welfare state is being dismantled, it's only fair to dismantle some of the taxes that used to pay for it."


And secondly, this from someone who I'm guessing is a selfish self-made man, a man who thinks the NHS is in a disgusting state and the government really don't give a shit about the health of its citizens but who wants his kids to be rich for doing fuck all. A Guardian reader, all the same:-

"I am a little irked by Patrick Collinson's article. The reason why it's not unreasonable for people to inherit large sums of money is because they then have the chance to help their own sons and daughters in setting up some kind of life for themselves.
I have two children aged seven and nine, and one of my last goals in life is to try and sort them out financially. It sticks in my throat when I think of this government trying to take what rightfully belongs to my sons when we finally 'croak it'."


These were letters responding to Patrick's previous article, before Darling moved the goalposts. I hope these two nice men are happy with Darling's new pronouncements. Or hasn't he gone far enough for them? The Tories are proposing £1 million tax-free. Now that's a fucking real bonanza.

14 comments:

  1. Thanks Geoff - after a relaxing weekend you've got me going again.
    I thought it was just me - until I read Will Hutton in last week's Observer.
    He writes "Paying death duties is vital for social mobility and opportunity"
    Most of us 'inherited' a damp council house which had to be cleared out in a fortnight.

    Whatever happened to socialism?

    Time for Corrie.

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  2. Kaz, you won't be able to see Corrie because poncey bloody rugby (the sport loved by the sort of people who will benefit from a higher inheritance tax threshold) is on ITV instead. Bah!

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  3. Betty:
    Just came back to say something similar - Is the SWP still going?

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  4. All for one and one for all!

    We are the three musketeers of blogging this Sunday evening.

    Come on, what would you rather watch? The greatest soap opera the world has ever seen or a load of big blokes with legs like tree trunks falling over one another?

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  5. I think you've made those letters up Geoff. Nobody could be that much of an arse.

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  6. It sticks in my throat when I think there are arses like this reading a left of centre newspaper.

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  7. Does the Canadian vote count in all of this?

    If so, I vote for Corrie over rugby.

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  8. Death and Taxes. I am stunned that the Class system in the Motherland is reaching Dickensian proportions.
    "They want MORE pudding?"

    Here in the Colonies it still only costs us 20 Beaver Pelts, a pinch of Tobacco and a pouch of dry Gunpowder, to make the local constabulary look the other way if they come across a decomposing Taxman on your property.

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  9. MJ - Double Corrie tonight! And no bleedin' rugby!

    HE - They want their cake and eat it too.

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  10. Is the guardian still a left-of-centre paper?

    Somebody should tell their frigging Weekend section (£500 frocks and £500,000 flats. And 'design'.)

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  11. How will it affect old alchoholic tax dodgers?

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  12. Corrie is being pre-empted on Tuesday for the Canadian Throne Speech.

    This is unacceptable.

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  13. With mortgages the size they are, the only way to pay them off during one's lifetime is through inheriting from parents.

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  14. Spin - The Weekend's shite. Except for the photos of French bulldogs this week.

    DH - If you don't pay, you don't get the benefits of our wonderful health service.

    MJ - Live from who's bathroom?

    Llewtrah - The parents have never had it so good. And they still begrudge paying a bit of tax when they're not even bloody alive.

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