Thursday 5 December 2013

The Good- The Bad and The Ugly!

DO WE need the wealthy and the privately educated? Former Prime Minister Sir John Major has burst back onto the political frontline over the past few weeks – first with his thoughts on energy prices and more recently his thoughts on social mobility and an expression of regret that there are too many rich privately educated among the ruling elite.
Taken as a whole, judiciary, business, politics, the civil service he's probably right but in politics things are changing and for the better, at least in the Conservative Party.
Of course there are still privately educated MPs but among those first elected in 2010 there are many representing the areas in which they grew up and who were educated in their local state school. On Wednesday evening I attended a meeting with four of my colleagues representing northern constituencies and all of them went to the local grammar or comprehensive. Does it matter?
Moving onto another group who we like to single out for special treatment – the rich. We tend not to like them; or is it just certain members of elite groups such as bankers and bosses of some businesses like the utilities? But what about footballers or movie stars? They don't attract as much hostility and most earn in days what the PM earns a year.
The reason I ask is that I read a newspaper piece last week that reminded me of the very significant contribution the well-paid make through their taxes. Apparently just one per cent of taxpayers – those earning more than £160,000 of which there are about 300,000 – will contribute just under 30 per cent of all income taxrevenues this year and that almost 59 per cent of all income tax comes from just 10 per cent of taxpayers. Should we be thankful?
On Friday I was among a group of MPs representing constituencies that could benefit enormously from investment in the off shore renewables sector. It gave me the opportunity of both supporting policies designed to secure the benefits that could be delivered to our area but also to emphasise that we must be mindful of the existing jobs that rely on competitive energy supplies and the need to ensure reasonable gas and electricity to domestic consumers. Much of the investment we are seeking to attract will come from the wealthy who may, perish the thought, be products of a private education. If that investment provides hundreds of jobs will that matter?
The PM has been heavily involved in the work to attract investment to our region and fully recognises the needs of existing industry and the importance of keeping domestic energy prices at acceptable levels.
So if we are to keep tax levels down we need the rich otherwise everyone else would be paying more. Have Ed Miliband and Ed Balls realised this?
So back to John Major: I fully endorse his wish to see people from a wider range of backgrounds reaching positions of influence as I'm sure will most readers of this column. If they become well-paid in the process and relieve your tax burden will you heave sigh of relief?


Read more: http://www.scunthorpetelegraph.co.uk/Barton-MP-asks-need-rich-tax-levels/story-20256051-detail/story.html#ixzz2mbashNQn