Friday, Sep 25, 2009
Heseltine attacks 'mad mansion tax'
BBC Question Time: Heseltine attacks 'mad mansion tax'
Lord Heseltine gets into a war of words with the Lib Dem spokesman on children, schools and families, David Laws, over the proposed "mansion tax", claiming an "ordinary terrace" - not a mansion - costs £1m in London.
Posted by doomwatch @ 09:05 PM (1381 views) Add Comment
29 Comments
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1. mark wadsworth said...
Crikey! I joined UKIP because they were prepared to kick against the pricks and stand up for the little guy.
If Hezza thinks that people living in £1m houses "on the periphery of central London" are the little guys ...
2. doomwatch said...
He soon pipes down when he's reminded shortly after that he
oversaw the non progressive poll & council taxes.
3. Pauly_boy said...
I watched this, I think he has scored a supreeme own goal for the Tories. £1m house is still £1m quid, which is a huge amount of money. If you can't afford the house (you'd have to be earning £200k a year to get a mortgage), then downsize.
End of story.
4. japanese uncle said...
For the 99% of the population this tax has no implication. So who cares if those less than one percent should be in trouble? Did they care a grain for the FTBs when house prices were going up like a mad dog?
.
5. paul said...
Exactly JU.
I wonder, does Heseltine live in a nice house? Over £1m I'd imagine?
The Corn Laws of 1816 were brought in to protect the landed interests of MPs at the expense of the impoverished population. Would Heseltine obstruct this for the same selfish reasons?
You betchya!
6. drewster said...
The Tory party has always been the party of the wealthy (not necessarily the wealth-creators). Heseltine just lost all my respect.
7. shipbuilder said...
Heseltine, ever the old-school Tory, laughably out of touch here.
8. Tvedtem said...
Anyone else notice that in his example the 'elderly couple' in their 'modest terrace' worth a million quid were also paying 50% tax next year - so at least one of them earns over 150K ?
He also said 'I know what a £1million house looks like' at the start, and got pretty defensive when it was suggested he was only thinking of being caught by the tax himself.
Guess I'd be annoyed about it if I was him but it's pretty low to pretend he's worried about struggling penioners rather than his own huge pile of cash... totally see through (but seemingly lost on the whooping QT audience for some reason)
9. Mightytharg said...
Haven't the LibDems got this backwards? Shouldn't Southerners get a tax rebate because they suffer from high house prices? A fairer tax would be an extra percentage for Northerners who benefit from cheap housing.
10. sovietuk said...
Heseltine does actually have experience in office unlike people who have never been or never will be in office. He is to be highly and heartily commended for taking this stance.
11. gone-to-colombia said...
Tax the b......ds
12. happy mondays said...
Hesestine, Better to fade away than burn out.... I thought he was dead, F*ck..
13. This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.
14. Stu531 said...
There are a boat load of folk who are looking forward to a tory win at the next election, to tell Gordon what a mess he's made and pay him back.
The true face, however, of tory 'look after number one' is revealing itself - despite Cameron's attempts to silence them.
Yes - I don't like what Labour have done. Some pretty bad things have gone on under Labour's watch - the gap between rich and poor being the prime example. Let's not forget the roots of this bubble were started when de-regulation was all the rage in the 80s.
I don't know what the answer is. Vince is da man, but the party that surrounds him are a set of amateurs.
15. Stu531 said...
There are a boat load of folk who are looking forward to a tory win at the next election, to tell Gordon what a mess he's made and pay him back.
The true face, however, of tory 'look after number one' is revealing itself - despite Cameron's attempts to silence them.
Yes - I don't like what Labour have done. Some pretty bad things have gone on under Labour's watch - the gap between rich and poor being the prime example. Let's not forget the roots of this bubble were started when de-regulation was all the rage in the 80s.
I don't know what the answer is. Vince is da man, but the party that surrounds him are a set of amateurs.
16. dbc reed said...
The power of the quality press! Not. Martin Wolf defends Cable in the FT on 24th September "Cable's mansion tax is right" then this blowhard backnumber steams in spouting ignorance (also Matthew Parris in The Times) without any consideration for the issues presented in Wolf's careful exposition of the case for taxing property and site values in particular.
Lets hope an open debate on property taxation ensues because the Tories will lose it,although the influential" red tory" Phillip Blond seems to be parting company with the homeownership centre of his party ( his party is really the blue wing of the National Homeownership Party).He appears to favour looking at property taxation.
If the Tories go into the election defending millionaire houseowners,they could outside London ,throw away seats that are theirs for the taking.But this will require Lib Dems to unite and quiet their inane local income tax supporters.And for the Labour Party to re-discover its radicalism.
17. Exiges said...
There is already a tax, linked to the value of your property, it's called Council Tax.
Adding a further tax to properties over a million would apply a downward pressure on property prices at that level, and have a domino effect downwards.
I'm all for reducing the over inflated prices of houses, towards the long term mean, but I think such a tax would artificially devalue them.
18. This comment has been removed as it was found to be in breach of our Blog Policies.
19. letthemfall said...
Let them live in ordinary terraces in Mayfair and eat cake.
20. Chf said...
Hezza totally missing the fact that a 'mansion tax' would prevent 'ordinary terraces' costing £1m (hopefully)
21. crunchy said...
4. paul
Heseltine used to own a large property empire, as to whether he still does, it's your guess.
Same old problem!
"Inflationary incompetence." and there was me thinking that they had done a bloody good job of it. It's one of the only things that Brown
and BOE were good at.
22. uncle tom said...
I've never been a fan of Heseltine, but at age 76, there's still a lot of life left in the old dog...
23. clockslinger said...
So, for all of those out there who think it will be different for HPI when the Tories get elected, look at what they are really made of and get a grip...the party of home ownership, second home ownership, property portfolio ownership.
24. Mrmx9 said...
I think this shows that if you are rich, privileged, inherited a lot of your wealth and have large numbers of expensive homes the Tories will look after you. They will do nothing for first time buyers or young people apart from promote policies which make housing even more unaffordable and won't invest in social housing either.
Surely there has to be a better alternative to nu Labour - maybe its time we did look towards the Lib Dems as they seem to be the only party with radical ideas that is interested in us 'little' people.
25. Mr Ed said...
So people are supposed to pay more tax based on the supposed value of their house. Something they have no f*cking control over.
We're taxed on our pay, taxed on everything we buy and taxed on something one might have bought years ago, which has been hyper-inflated due to the most ridiculous bubble ever - and no I don't live in and certainly can't afford a 1M house.
Stop taxing or threatening to tax the f*ck out of people who are moderately successful (the middle classes) and cut benefit payments for all the lazy layabout useless slobs who only exist to breed.
26. new_order said...
In these darkening times (emphasis on "darkening" as opposed to dark), hands up who feels sympathy for a millionaire?
I didn't think so.
27. uncle tom said...
hands up who feels sympathy for a millionaire?
If we start chasing millionaires away, we'll miss their spending power, and the tax revenues they already generate..
28. shipbuilder said...
17. uncle tom said...
"hands up who feels sympathy for a millionaire?
If we start chasing millionaires away, we'll miss their spending power, and the tax revenues they already generate.."
If we are talking about a property tax that replaces income tax (which, fair enough, Cable's idea doesn't), then we are in fact rewarding the millionaires who actually generate wealth as opposed to the millionaires that simply sit on appreciating assets. What could be fairer?
29. letthemfall said...
We could do without the spending power that buys second, third homes. Anyway, taxes transfer spending power to the lower paid, so no net loss.