Non-dom issue

I could never convince my late father, a Labour “capo” in Stirlingshire’s post-war County Council, of the amoral logic of what is now known as the Laffer Curve.

In my US business school 55 years ago the idea came from Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon’s claim in 1924 that “lower tax rates generate higher government revenue”.

For socialists, taxation has a moral element and the suspicion the wealthy were “getting away with it” riled my father in a way it did not a pragmatic one-nation Tory like me.

I suspect the “non-dom” farrago is also a “moral” issue and the fact that 115 non-doms pay £9 billion income tax – and the government could lose serious money – doesn’t matter.

Not all non-doms are Tony Blair’s plutocrat chums: many are high-flying professionals with foreign ties and we could lose their talents and their industry as well as their taxes.

(Dr) John Cameron

Howard Place

St Andrews

Ed Miliband’s intention to scrap non-dom tax status has certainly put clear blue water between Labour and the Conservatives. Unfortunately, there seems to be clear blue water between Ed and his Shadow Chancellor too. Oh dear.

Ken Currie

Liberton Drive

Edinburgh