And the brass neck of the year award goes to...
Fraser Nelson 6:18pm
If there is an award for a brass neck of 2008, George Osborne has just done enough to win in. First, he proposes a tax on the non-doms (which I critiqued at the time). Then, Darling nicks it in his infamous magpie budget. Then, it becomes clear this daft proposal will simply drive away the highly-mobile millionaires resulting in a net loss to the Exchequer. Today Osborne has written an “open letter” to Darling asking him to repeal this proposal for all the harm it will do. A proposal which he was complaining was nicked from him. Of course winning parties tend to have brass necks – and Osborne’s cheek is far preferable to the pusillanimous approach of previous Shadow Chancellors. But what a cheek it is.
A while ago there was loose talk of erecting a statue of Messrs Sarbanes and Oxley in Canary Wharf to thank them for jacking up Wall St regulation and – therefore - pushing overseas listings to London. It would have served as a reminder to politicians that in this world of the uber-mobility of capital, they can do great damage because financiers already live a multi-country existence and do not wait to be whacked by tax or regulation. The City of London has become a little gilded space station, where Japanese come to business with South Africans. Non-doms attract other domiciled, taxpaying business to London – the whole thing stuffs Brown’s coffers with gold. I always believed Brown understood all this (and suspected the Tories did not). But both parties, in the end, proposed taking a carving knife to the Golden goose which is the City of London.
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Comments
Faceless Bureaucrat
February 11th, 2008 7:21pmThe politics of envy runs in the very blood of NuLab - no change there - although agree Osborne should have done his research before pushing this particular idea. A refresh of his policy advisors might be a good idea...
Chuck Unsworth
February 11th, 2008 7:25pmCheek? You don't think such actions are 'Cheeky', surely? How very Prep School. Osborne may, of course, have been pretty astute.
Max Kaye
February 11th, 2008 7:26pmLet's hope that common sense prevails and this stupid notion will be kicked into the long grass, saving face and blushes for all concerned.
newmania
February 11th, 2008 10:30pmI must say even I noticed that
TGF UKIP
February 11th, 2008 11:05pmPerhaps someone told Boy George about Ronald Reagan's pig parable. Perhaps, he'll apply it to all his other high tax policies - and the pig may even fly as well.
Tapestry
February 12th, 2008 12:19amPolitics of envy pre-economic slump is now being replaced by politics of fear. Keep up.
Mark Heenan
February 12th, 2008 2:55amI think the problem with Darling's proposal is that it is backdated and does not come with the key feature of Osbourne's proposal - a promise not to further molest non-doms who have paid their fee. It's this lack of closure that scares people about Darling's proposal.
sandy macalister
February 12th, 2008 9:08amThe problem is professional politicians,most of whom have never had a proper job outside of the political world. I would ban anyone under the age of 40 from standing for Parliament.Before you get to run the country you should have at least some understanding of how the real world works
Curbishly
February 12th, 2008 10:51amPerhaps Osbourne and his policy wonks reckoned this would be a very bad idea and would alienate the City. Which is why he suggested he was "thinking" about it knowing Brown/Darling would steal the idea and publically state they implement it. The result is going better than they could have hoped for.
Fraser Nelson
February 12th, 2008 11:39amFaceless, Osborne's advisors are quite good (in my opinion) and remember the non-doms policy was a huge political success. It enabled the IHT proposal, which probably halted the election. The figures were dodgy and would not have withstood the scrutiny of a general election campaign, tho. Lucky for GO things worked out as they did and Darling is lumbered with this destructive idea.
Ian C
February 12th, 2008 11:46amWhat we are seeing in the first year of GB as PM is what he was prevented from doing while TB was there. The latter will next be seeking employment in Outer Mongolia to distance himself as fas as he can from letting GB loose on us. Poor Darling has the biggest Gov't non-job (that was not even advertised in the Guardian) as GB had lined up the policies for when he became PM. They just got torpedoed by the non-election and are in a complete pickle as a result.