Killer Arguments Against LVT, Not (309)

From The Evening Standard:

Ms Jowell, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, said: “I’ve thought a lot about the mansion tax dilemma and I represent a constituency where it would be an issue for some people.

“Not because they have a fabulous income and lots of disposable capital, but because they are people who bought homes maybe 20 or 30 years ago for a fraction of what they are worth now. They are people maybe becoming elderly who are asset-rich and income-poor.

“It’s fine to say we’ll impose a mansion tax, but for these people they would have to move out of their family homes. Let’s be wary of the perverse effects of that. What might be better is two or three more council tax bands … looking at the top end like that.”

Good one Tessa, I've never heard that problem highlighted before.

Now let me think for a few milliseconds… how about we, er, just give such people the option to roll up the tax, and defer payment until they die or sell their home? That general principle applies equally to having more council tax bands at the top end, it's all the same thing. If that means getting rid of Inheritance Tax and SDLT, then so much the better.

One thing the Homeys can never answer is: how did old people manage in the good old days when we had Domestic Rates, how do they manage in the many countries where the tax is proportional to the value of the home (USA, Switzerland, Australia etc)?

"David Mills sentenced to four years in Italy for corruption"

This cheered me up no end, I hope brightens up one or two other people's evenings as well.

Spot the difference

One of these two women accepted dodgy donations for her Deputy Leadership campaign*; the other had her £350,000 mortgage paid off by a mystery benefactor.

The husband of one them was Party Treasurer, who knew nothing about loans-for-peerages, who omitted £25 million in soft loans from his party's accounts, and f*** me, forgot all about a £40,000 mortgage he took out to fund said wife's Deputy Leadership campaign. The estranged husband of the other "has never been bribed by Mr Berlusconi or by anyone on his behalf".





Without following the links (or hovering over the pictures) can anybody remember which one is which?

Clue: apparently one of them shone at PMQs recently.

* The article says that she said she'd return it. Well, firstly, under PPERA, you can't return it, it has to be forfeited to El Comm. And as it happens I bet she did neither.