At the end of last week, I asked for bets on an election being called today. 4 working days are along time in politics…. …we know the election isn’t happening now till 2009 at the earliest.
But note that the key poll turners from last weeks Tory conference have been blatantly nicked by the Government in the PBR:
– reform IHT, funded by
– an annual charge on non doms
Talk about dog whistle politics! Poor Fido isn’t going to know whose calling him….
IHT actually collects very little for the Government – like CGT its a long stop to stop revenue falling out of the system elsewhere, and the impact of IHT can be subject to planned mitigation in many cases. It does however carry the stigma, particularly from the tabloid press, of being “unfair” – why be taxed on death on money you’ve probably already been taxed on when earned. So its a nice one for politicians to pontificate on, but in fact not as sexy as tampering with Income Tax, Corporation Tax or VAT.