That’s a bit rich

Published on 30/08/2012 00:00

I see that the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, has been using that odious piece of newspeak so beloved of Tony Blair, calling the rich “wealth 
creators” whenever someone proposes them paying a bit more of their fair share when the country’s up the proverbial.

In the UK, you can cheat on taxes via offshore scams exploiting legislative loopholes left specifically open by parliament so “wealth creators” could exploit them – until a celebrity like Jimmy Carr gets caught using them and thus it becomes a headline that the great unwashed are likely to read (and be cross about).

Cue loophole closed down, a new loophole opened, and plenty of diversionary media stories spin-doctored about benefits scroungers bringing the nation to its knees.

The Western world is in the longest protracted recession in living memory, yet somehow the gap between rich and 
poor has widened rather than shrunk, as was the case of the depressed 1930s or the post-
war austerity of the late 1940s to early 1950s.

The remarkable thing about all these “wealth creators” is the only wealth they ever appear to create is for themselves.

Mark Boyle

Linn Park Gardens

Johnstone

How very sweet of the Liberal Democrats to be talking about imposing an “emergency tax” on the super-rich until the worst of the economic crisis is over.

Frankly, they can say what they like but they clearly have no influence over their Conservative bosses.

DAVE ASHFORD

Dalziel Place

Edinburgh