[Oboogie]

Meanwhile... Wes Streeting is apparently proposing a wealth tax. Are we through the looking glass ?

Introducing a wealth tax is proof that you're a Red Tory Thatcherite whereas vowing to continue Shabana Mahmood’s immigration policies makes you a darling of the Left.

I have Jefferson Airplane playing in my head.*

* A popular beat group of the 1960s M'lud, they entered the Hit Parade with their song "White Rabbit" referencing Lewis Carroll's most famous work.

[Tubby Isaacs]

He’s proposing equalising Capital Gains and Income Tax, which he rather cleverly calls a”wealth tax which works”.

This is basically fine. The only trouble is when you overstate the extra revenues which he claims are £12bn a year. You have to at the very least have an inflation allowance, and then probably another allowance too. Everywhere charges lower rates on capital gains because they want investment.

So reduce the projected take a few billion and go for it.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Streeting was talking about equalising income and capital gains tax rates this morning which is more tangible than 'we used to make stuff when I was a lad.'
Don't know what's fuelling the impressive growth rates Machester is enjoying under Andy's mayoralty but I bet its high end services and international investment in tech and finance. A model Lawson and Thatcher envisaged in the 80s.

This is more than likely. Plus the Blair thing of actually making inner cities into places people want to live. There’s often a reaction to this as gentrification, which is sometimes unfair. The only way to avoid that is for areas to stay run down with no jobs. But a line should be drawn in terms of existing social tenants.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Meanwhile... Wes Streeting is apparently proposing a wealth tax. Are we through the looking glass ?

Introducing a wealth tax is proof that you're a Red Tory Thatcherite whereas vowing to continue Shabana Mahmood’s immigration policies makes you a darling of the Left.

I have Jefferson Airplane playing in my head.*

* A popular beat group of the 1960s M'lud, they entered the Hit Parade with their song "White Rabbit" referencing Lewis Carroll's most famous work.

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah-smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
He called Andy
When he was just small

[mattomac]

It’s sad I’m liking Wes’s proposals more than Andy’s.

I’m thankful I won’t be voting in any ego contest if it’s just them two.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Wes seems to be carrying out the little known expedient of... lifting tax policies off the peg, from people who know what they're talking about. The one thing he's said recently that's annoyed me is that Britain is too highly taxed. We aren't, considering what all of demand. Yet his first proper policy here (as opposed to rejoining the EU, which is an aspiration at most) is actually raising more tax. I wonder if he meant that some taxes are too high and that we should restructure, but that overall they aren't too high? If so, I can go along with that.

Where he'll be unpopular with Labour members is that he's very pro-market. I don't know how pro-union, he is. I'd have said lots of the same stuff he has about Resident Doctors, I expect, but he's paid to show a bit more discretion. I don't get the feeling that he's much different to Starmer. I think pro-market, but pro-union too, is a reasonable combination, but I doubt it's particularly popular with the electorate either. Perhaps he and Stephen Bush can run together and get the endorsement of The Economist, and about 2% of the vote.

He's still a Young Man In A Hurry though, and I don't like that. He should have kept his head down for longer at Health. At the moment, he's looking a bit like John Redwood, leaving the Cabinet to do a leadership challenge, except Redwood's did materialize.