Tuesday 22 November 2022 08:29 AM TOM HARRIS: When did ambition become so toxic that being well-off is seen as ... trends now
Wealth — especially in large amounts — has long been frowned upon by us Brits.
There has always been something unfashionable, perhaps even something un-British, about ostentatious shows of money.
Under First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's vice-like grip, Scotland in particular has become a place where wealth dare not speak its name. That is truer now than ever before.
This week, for instance, we learned that NHS Scotland leaders have discussed abandoning the founding principles of our healthcare system in place of a 'two-tier' service in which the wealthy would pay a premium for treatment.
But we're not even talking about the wealthy here, are we? We're talking about the aspirational middle classes — the deputy headteachers, the local manufacturing bosses.
Which begs the question: at what income level would the premium be applied? £40,000? £80,000? And remember, these are people who have already paid tax towards the NHS.
The proposal, revealed from leaked minutes of a meeting by health service chiefs in September, comes as a massive £2.1 billion 'black hole' in the SNP government budget was exposed earlier this summer.
This week, for instance, we learned that NHS Scotland leaders have discussed abandoning the founding principles of our healthcare system in place of a 'two-tier' service in which the wealthy would pay a premium for treatment. (File image)
Under First Minister Nicola Sturgeon's (pictured) vice-like grip, Scotland in particular has become a place where wealth dare not speak its name
Ailing
In her defence, Sturgeon has pushed back against her NHS executives, saying that any such reform to the health service is 'not up for debate'.
And quite right, too; how could she expect the higher-earning middle classes — who contribute the largest portion of tax to the exchequer — to pay for the damage her party has done to Scotland's now ailing health service?
There's a bigger point here, too. For while this extreme proposal says much about the SNP's incompetency in government, it says more about the instinctive knee-jerk reaction of our political classes and the wider Establishment to target higher earners every time the collection plate has to be passed.
Indeed, it's not just in Scotland where this anti-wealth agenda has taken hold.
Last week's Autumn Statement signalled that such sentiment has even leached into our Tory Government, as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt (pictured together) demonstrated their readiness to punish the middle classes for Britain's problems
Last week's Autumn Statement signalled that such sentiment has even leached into our Tory Government, as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his Chancellor Jeremy Hunt demonstrated their readiness to punish the middle classes for Britain's problems.
Yes, we all need to tighten our belts and brace for tough times ahead. And yes, swift action was required to steady the ship after Liz Truss and her gung-ho chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's overly ambitious vision nearly drove us to disaster.
Stealth
But what Hunt and Sunak unveiled last week was unprecedented. Frozen income and inheritance tax thresholds designed to harvest cash by stealth; an eye-watering cut in the tax-free allowance on dividends; hikes in fuel duty; local authorities given the green light to raise council tax; a reduction in the 45p threshold dragging hundreds of thousands into the top rate of income tax. The list goes on.
In all, this £25 billion grab means households will suffer the worst tax burden Britain has seen since World War II — and, as the Mail argued last week, it amounts to little more than a shameless soaking of the nation's strivers.
For while the honest and hard-working Brits who drive productivity will have to pay up, benefit claimants and pensioners will see their incomes increase with inflation. All of which led many
