Tax affairs a 'private matter - for the rich and powerful

A Tory MP stated that in the UK peoples' tax affairs are a 'private matter'. How does allowing wealthy Conservatives to treat the tax system as a private matter benefit our economy?

Just consider that question. Here we have a class of people who disagree with a progressive tax system. A class of people who avariciously hold on to what they have, and acquisitively claw in more riches to the detriment of all others. A class for whom the world is not enough.

Yet in our society the wealthier you are the more chance you have of being able to treat your tax affairs as a ‘private matter’; and given that license, is it any wonder that the rich secretly secrete their money out of sight from the HMRC.

This is why when I hear Tories denying that they are waging an ideological war against the poor I wonder at the lengths they go to to pursue £1.2 billion of benefit fraud compared to anything from £100 to £120 billion cheated on taxes annually. Even someone with the most tenuous understanding of economics, say George Osborne, should be able to work out which group it would be more financially advantageous to go after.