The super-rich

Brendan Barber, speaking for the TUC makes a series of good points:

Speaking ahead of the TUC annual congress, which starts in Brighton on Monday, he said: "Today a significant group of super-rich float free from the rest of society, and think that tax is for the little people.

Yes, thanks to Gordon Brown refusing to close the loopholes.

"Today the rest of society pays a heavy price for the wealth gap - whether middle, low or no income." Mr Barber said this "distorted" the housing market, adding: "The gap harms social cohesion - and without joining the moral panic about crime rates in the UK, it's noticeable that many countries with a fairer distribution of income have lower crime rates."

Yes, let's close the wealth gap as it is the level of relative poverty that is related to crime rates not the Gini co-efficient.

Some 112,000 people currently benefit from "non-domiciliary tax breaks", he added. When asked about the size of City bonuses, Mr Barber said they had reached £14bn in total this year.

So is Gordon Brown going to close the tax breaks then?

Are you going to lobby so that people like people like Sir Philip Green pay tax in the UK on UK earnings?

Perhaps you might even suggest that UK based companies actually pay UK tax, rather than shuffling it off-shore?

But he added that the TUC was not calling for a change in the rate of income tax for the highest earners.

Obviously none of the above. They pulled their punches and don't want to say anything practical and controversial that might rock the boat (berthed in Monaco!) and upset Gordon Brown. I am sure that many union members would be more than happy to see a 50% tax rate on earnings over, say, £250,000 and let's say 60% above £1,000,000. That'll achieve much of what the TUC claim they want to see happen.