Thursday, October 18, 2007

Having Your Cake

LibDem Treasury Spokeswoman Julia Goldsworthy (age 29 3/4) today showed why she was wise to stay out of the LibDem leadership race. At the end of a press release bemoaning increasing house prices, she said this...
 
"While the Tories and Labour seem intent on fighting over niche issues, such as Inheritance Tax thresholds, there is deafening silence from them on the increasing uncertainty in the wider economy."
 
Niche?!! I don' think a tax which affects 37 per cent of houses can be described as niche. And in any case, wasn't it the very same Julia Goldsworthy who, only a few months ago, was trumpeting LibDem proposals to increase the IHT threshhold to £500,000? I think we should be told.

25 comments:

Anonymous said...

it would appear her parents are still in healthy middle age..........or just poor.

Newmania said...

"there is deafening silence from them on the increasing uncertainty in the wider economy"

Meaningless chirruping .Have a worm and go to sleep little bird

Anonymous said...

37% of houses maybe, but what percentage of people - max 1% a year?

Anonymous said...

Ellen De Generes' has been in tears, over a dog that she gave away to a kid. She originally got the dog from a rescue place that contractually obliged her not to give it away. The rescue place complained and now they are getting death threats for being so horrid to a nice little kid who loves the pooch. Ellen has been crying her eyes out on her syndicated show. These are the big stories of the day.And did we ever get the "cuckolded astronaut in a nappy" story? No.

This is because none of them are LibDems. Would it change things if Ellen turned out to be a LibDem? Are there more LibDem stories to follow? Can we go back to fending off "all Tories are rich bastards" trolls and discussing David Cameron's integrity? Please, even do football or advertise gay pride marches if you have to, but no more LibDems.


I shall now go and have a quiet lie down.

Anonymous said...

Iain, are you saying that 37% of houses in this country currently have equity in them of £300k or more? Where do you get that figure?

And what percentage have equity of £100k or more?

Paul Linford said...

You can't deny though that she would have livened up the Lib Dem leadership race considerably...not that that would be hard.

S said...

I thought it was 6%. That is how it was costed anyway...

Anonymous said...

It can be regarded as niche insofar as it doesn't affect 92% of the population. I would also seriously question your 37% of houses figure which sounds way off the mark.

Anonymous said...

As house prices crash, the inheritance tax limits will be increasingly irelevant.

Anonymous said...

Yes she is a bit of an airhead. Nice pair of funbags though.

strapworld said...

Enough is enough is enough is enough.

Anonymous said...

no more lib dum claptrap.....its soul destroying

Anonymous said...

It's 6%. You are as bad with numbers as most Tories!

And anyway, all three parties have similar proposals - the difference between the LD £500k, the Lab transferable and the Con £1m allowance really is a niche issue.

Anonymous said...

Inamicus et al: sufficiently niche that the Tories' move on it managed to postpone a general election...

Anonymous said...

Lab = £600k for couples, no lawyer fees

Con = £2m for couples (minus lawyer fees)

LibDem - 500k if you say so, any tax avoidance scope?

Niche, but Lab & Con are distinct from each other

Anonymous said...

Iain, Why don't you just invite her over to 18 Doughty Street (or is it Hooky Street) and interview her?

I think you might be over-reacting to one word. I know language is important ...but don't get too hung up on just ONE word!

:) LoL

Anonymous said...

table 531 from here has 37% of purchases over 200k in 2006.

(So "a good bit" fewer than 37% of houses would cost 300k, let alone have 300k equity in them.)

Anonymous said...

We do not seem to hace heard much about Boom & Bust recently. Must be because our previous Chancellor abolished it.

Newmania said...

37% of houses maybe, but what percentage of people - max 1% a year?


Rats we forgot to tell everyone to die at the same time ..."OK ...team ..can we coordinate here...Teeeam !"

Anon 4.11 - All the Parties have something to say since the Labour Party has copied the Conservative Party simultaneously claiming
1 It made no difference
2 We cannot live without the revenue

3 Borrowing another £4 billion on top of the rest which we should not have at this point


Its not niche issue it was exploding with house prices . It has also established that the ten year experiment with handing over ever increasing amoumts of your money to idiot Brown has failed . Further tax cuts must now follow . Its a Pity the Liberals can`t get their act together on this . The combined effect of local and national proposals are actually a disaster for everyone,

Until they stop playing at it they will be the Party that wants you to be free to do as your told in state dungarees when you are out of the state work project. Conflicted...just a bit

Newmania said...

Anyway in England you won`t own your house , you`ll have to sell it to look after yourself when you reach Iain dales ripe old age .

In Scotland , of course , you get free help at home .... courtesy of the £30 bilion Mac Broon o` the Glen Broon is sending up to his slavering pictish cohorts . Honestly we were way way better off when they only stole sheep.

( I bet they actually keep it in coin and roll around in it cackling in their fiendish thin lipped grasping way)....but I digress....

Anonymous said...

What was Rooney doing at left back anyway?

Anonymous said...

The forthcoming UK house price crash will make IHT irrelevant for 99% of house sellers. It was still a clever, and highly profitable, proposal by Osborne though.

Anonymous said...

The "37% of houses" thing is simply meaningless and displays the lack of intelligence in Conservative circles today.

The only issue is the percentage of estates exceeding the inheritance tax threshold on death. That is around 6%.

There are two major reasons for the difference. First, any married couple with a reasonably expensive home and an adequate will already effectively get a double allowance by passing a life interest in half the main property to the surviving partner using the married couple exemption with the reversion to the kids up to the threshold. Secondly, many elderly people simply downsize to smaller property in their final few years and their net worth will have eroded between retirement and death.

Anonymous said...

37% of houses? That's utter rubbish, which presumes that all those homes' mortgages have been paid off to the value of £300,000 - if you buy a house for £300,000 with a £150,000 mortgage, you are clearly not going to pay inheritance tax! Why are you peddling this anti-progressive, greedy, self-indulgent tripe???

Scipio said...

Inheritence tax is a pernitious and evil invention which should be scraped as a matter of principle regardless of the wider cost to the exchequer.

It is a tax on money which has already been taxed.

It is a poll tax which pays for public services which will never be used, because the person who has paid for them is dead.

It is a tax which sends a wider message of 'don't bother saving' and 'don't bother looking out for your family', and in the end, feeds into the 'bugger everyone else (including the kids), I am going to look after myself".

Anyway, it is all irrelevenat. Anyone who has any money at all when they reitre will need it all to fund their old age, as thanks to Robber Brown, the pensions we have saved won't keep a mouse in cheese, and unless you live in the soiclaist utopia which is (the english taxpayer funded) Scotland, you will have to pur your savings down the throats of the owners of OAP homes!

Personally, If I have any cash left over when I shuffle of my mortal coil, I will leave in cash in brown envelopes for the kids to find - and I will sign over my house to them the nano-second it is paid off! Yes, leaving cash behind it is illegal, but what are they bastards gonna do - dig me up and prosecute my rotten arse?

It's just a shame that I will have to wait till I am dead to get one over on the bloody tax man!