Hard-working families - 4 comments
The Times brings us the news that "Thousands of buy-to-let families face tax shock".
The article's feeble and shamelessly partisan rhetoric has already been cut to pieces, but what is tragic is to see the same "boo" and "warm" words traded by all mainstream political parties. How demeaning it is to contemporary politics that people out for themselves can still be held up for pity in front of a less well-off electorate, and the stupid and greedy protected on the grounds that they have a home, a spouse, and perhaps dependants.
It continues to stink.
Labels: hypocrisy, idiocy, inequality, politics, sentimentaility, The Times
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4 comments so far...
Oh dear, oh dear. The words "sledgehammer" and "nut" spring to mind. The Times article is a pretty straightforward one, and not particularly awful.
Unfortuantely an enormous amount of bias is inferred by Labour partisans who then go on to label these people (who may not be paying enough tax) as greedy, criminal, selfish etc., and the Times somehow of being apologists for them. Blimey, it's a bit of a stretch.
As ever, real life is rather more convoluted. Many may not have paid enough tax unwittingly, and so a huge tax bill may come as shock. The tax system can be fiendishly complicated. Buying property is one way to make money and make one's financial future more secure, and this activity has hardly been discouraged by the government.
The Treasury will occasionally go on these crackdowns, and timing is one issue.
Moreover (and of course this will not be mentioned here) there are number of tax loopholes that the super rich exploit, that Gordon resolutely refuses to close.
Somehow these are continually
overlooked in these periodic crackdowns.
I think you've rather missed/avoided the point. The final sentence is the one stressed.
The wider point, that is: about the use of political language in targeting susceptible voters.
I think that, technically, in the Labour Party in particular and in politics in general, "hard-working families" is actually one word "hardworkingfamilies" (much like "butattheendoftheday", as said by trade union leaders).
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