Tax the Rich

The three main parties resemble medieval churchmen arguing about the number of angels who can fit on a pinhead. There is very little to choose between them. This point needs hammering again and again as the media who exist in the same bubble continue to parrot the party line. And ignore any dissenting view. 

Academic Greg Philo writing on behalf of the Glasgow University Media Group, made the point very well in a letter to The Guardian today.

“When we suggested a wealth tax to raise £800bn out of the £4tn held by the richest in our society, to stop the cuts, we found very strong support with a YouGov poll showing 73% in favour. The problem is not the potential support, but the fact that most people are not offered such alternatives either in mainstream media or by the main political parties.

The BBC should be featuring alternative views, but its news programmes are largely a parade of vested interests. We analysed interviews on the BBC's Today programme in the period in which UK banks were part nationalised and found that 81% of the interviewees were either, "City sources", "free market economists" or "business representatives". The limiting of the range of alternatives impacts on public understanding of what is possible. Our most recent focus groups show people believing that the UK debt relates only to the actions of the last Labour government, rather than as a typical feature of how governments operate over long periods of time. Most plaintively, it was said in a group that there couldn't be alternatives to the present policies or "they would have heard of them". They certainly wouldn't at the moment, from most of our politicians and media.”

Tax the rich would resonate with a lot of people struggling. It would go over the head of our  smugly incompetent chancellor who tells us today that he is “shocked” at the way wealthy individuals pay barely 10% tax in the UK. Shocked my arse. They are his mates.