In 2016 the Sunday Times published the annual rich list in it’s usual fawning manner today. The richest 1000 have a combined wealth of £547.12bn, the richest 25 have a combined wealth of £179.13bn. In 2017 the 29th Sunday Times Rich List revealed that “this year’s 500 richest individuals and families are now wealthier than the entire top 1,000 were in 2016.
Those who saw their fortunes soar were mainly those making money out of the City, those holding huge property portfolios, or people who were involved in manufacturing. This year though, it the top of the list saw some huge gains in individual fortunes. For example, the Lakshmi family, which owns the largest steel maker in the world ArcelorMittal, saw their wealth grow by £6.1 billion in just one year.I have nothing against individuals being wealthy, but I do believe that those who have a great deal more than others should proportionately pay their fair share to the taxation system of this country to help fund the services they wish to benefit from; i.e. NHS,Education, Police, Fire Service, local councils, Highways, etc.
To this end I suggest a one off 10% windfall tax on the wealthiest 1000 fortunate individuals in this country who are mostly untouched by the austerity forced upon the rest of the population by the hated Tory Party. Such a tax would conservatively raise £54.71bn (2016 figures) enough to fund many of the public sector services that have been cut to the bone by the vicious hateful Tory Party. Even after such a tax those affected by it would still have a combined wealth of £492.31bn (2016 figures) more than enough to still live a comfortable life and still be unaffected by the recession and the Tory austerity policy which has been proved to be a failure, as the only beneficiaries are those who have all the wealth in the first place.
Nick Clarke
