Monday 10 December 2012

Even though this was in The Daily Mirror, it does have the ring of truth...

Via Drewster at HPC, from The Daily Mirror:

DAVID Cameron personally vetoed plans for a new property tax after donors threatened to ban Tory party fund-raising events from their mansions. Super-rich donors warned the Prime Minister that if he taxed their London townhouses and sprawling country estates they would refuse to host dinners to boost the Conservative Party's coffers.

A senior insider revealed: "The message went out - tax our mansions and you can forget us ever holding another black tie event for you at our homes ever again. Cameron could not have funded the party without these events so he had no choice. It was all highly embarrassing."

... Lavish Tory fund-raising dinners are regularly held in some of the most spectacular piles in Britain. But an insider said the message from Tory HQ fund-raising officials was that "almost all" big donors who offered their homes as venues for the party dinners were unhappy.

Lib Dem peer Lord Oakeshott accused Cameron and Osborne of "performing a hand-brake turn on donor orders". He told the Sunday Mirror: "The Tories are too scared to make their backers pay more than a £26-a-week council tax on their multi-million pound Mayfair mansions. That's not fair, it's feeble."


And no doubt dozens of Poor Widows In Mansions threatened to cancel their party membership subscriptions of £10-odd a year.

12 comments:

James James said...

This is the problem with not admitting the truth that the state is an rent-collecting organisation. Instead of the political parties being able to openly redirect rents into their own coffers, they must direct rents into their supporters coffers who then pass some of them on to the party.

Mark Wadsworth said...

JJ, true.

I suppose it is highly unlikely that the Mirror would point out that the Labour government did the same thing with the "union modernisation fund" (something which the Tories are in no hurry to shut down, it would appear).

Bayard said...

Nor is the Mirror in any hurry to point out that large public sector contracts tend to go to contractors who are party donors, presumably because both Labour and Tories benefit from this sort of corruption.

Old BE said...

It doesn't really matter whether the particular story is right or not, it matters that it is plausible.

I would have preferred it if Cameron had said "no" to a "mansion tax" but said "yes" to a independent scientific investigation into whether a shift from taxing incomes to property might be appropriate.

You don't have to be a "land taxer" extremist to see that many of the current tax scandals are linked to the difficulty of taxing profits and income in a society that allows such free movement.

BE

Mark Wadsworth said...

B, also a good point.

BE: "... whether a shift from taxing incomes to property might be appropriate."

Actually, what we want is a shift to taxes on the "annual rental value of land/locations" (or the "site premium" or however you wish to define it).

Would you consider me an extremist? It strikes me that if A is better than B, then a partical shift from B to A is good but a complete shift is better. Doesn't really matter, because we could do it in stages, and if at any stage things get worse (which they wouldn't, I know that for a fact) then we can always call a halt.

Old BE said...

I would say that setting up a single issue party is quite "extreme" - in the nicest possible way :-)

BE

Mark Wadsworth said...

BE, YPP is not a single issue party, try reading our manifesto.

DBC Reed said...

@BE
MW's right the YPP is not a single issue party- more's the pity.Better it was the House Prices Down Wages Up Party IMO,but is his party and its up to him.

Lola said...

James james @ 11.14 - is the rest of your name Morrison Morrison Weatherby George DuPree? And if so are you looking after your mother? And are you disobedient?

Mark Wadsworth said...

DBC, we are, among other things, the "House Prices Down Wages Up Party". And it's not "my" party it's the Young People's Party.

Lola said...

"It's my party and I'll cry if I want to.."

Tim Almond said...

I've never quite understood why people would want to go to any sort of fund-raising event. I went to a political fundraiser once and it was one of the most tedious occassions I've ever had and really about asking for even more money via a raffle etc.

I'd rather spend my money on dinner and a room at Le Manoir with a couple of escorts.