Alan Duncan, What A Prize Pratt!!

[saintpeter48]

The *** cheek of the man to say that anyone who is NOT a millionaire are under achievers ...... What do other ABers think of his comment?

[Mamyalynne]

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/panama-papers-sir-alan-duncan-mp-speaking-in-defence-of-david-cameron-critcised-for-decrying-low-a6979826.html




What do I think? Perhaps a silly comment to make but as ever he's entitled to his opinions.

[ToraToraTora]

bit of a silly thing to say.

[dannyk13]

Sounds like a British version of Trump.

[sandyRoe]

And anyone still using public transport in their late 20s isn't really making enough effort to get on.
Who was it said that?

[bazwillrun]

@ saintpeter

but he wasnt referring to just anyone (ie Jo Schmo), was he ?...he was actually referring to the HOC specifically..

[sandyRoe]

Can a man, beyond the age of 26 who finds himself on a bus count himself a failure?
Thatcher, who else.

[piggynose]

but he's got a point, no one in the uk likes to see anybody being sucessful,

[Old_Geezer]

When we get an equitable distribution of wealth, instead of it mostly going to those able to work the system to become overly wealthy off the backs of others, then we shall all be under achievers.

[naomi24]

OG, when you say you want 'equitable distribution of wealth' what do you mean? You want a bit of what someone else has earned or has had the wherewithal to accumulate?

[ummmm]

I do think there's a lot of wealth envy.

[Prudie]

He didn't actually say anyone who is not a millionaire is a low achiever, there are some loose links to get from one phrase to the other but hey if it gives an opportunity to see the worst it makes for good discussion.

[naomi24]

ummmm, //I do think there's a lot of wealth envy. //

Without doubt.

[sandyRoe]

Sometimes they let the mask slip and show what they really think of us.

[naomi24]

sandyRoe, at the risk of allowing the truth to get in the way of the whinging, see bazwillrun's post at 09:49 and Prudie's at 10.07.

[sp1814]

There is[i envy of the wealthy, but there's also a lot of admiration. Richard Branson is well on his way the status of National Treasure (Paul McCartney is already there).

It's not wealth that people object to.

It's greed and unfairness.

The verb that is associated with Britain is 'fair'. It governs so much of our national identity - from queuing through to rigged votes on talent shows to the Poll Tax...it's all governed by what we think of as 'fairness'.

So when we see wealthy people paying less tax than your average worker, it raises the hackles.

Tell you what - if we were given the opportunity to do the same (say - have our salaries paid into non-dom accounts in the Seychells), then [i]that] would be fair.

...but we don't have that opportunity.

[Old_Geezer]

Well naomi. a good start would be a top rate 100% tax band so folk can not go on fleecing the rest of us without limit. We have a minimum wage, why not a maximum ? And there must be many things that could be made illegal such as preying on the desperate with mega percentage loans. And a move from indirect taxes on spending to taxes related to income would be brilliant since that is the only fair tax that is proportional to the gains one made from being a citizen. I'll let you work out the details to make things fairer. There must be too many aspects to bother discussing here.

[naomi24]

OG, Why should there be a maximum wage? If you work harder you expect more and if you don’t get it, where’s the incentive? Incomel tax is proportional, and I agree that loan sharks are fleecing people, but that’s nothing to do with individual earnings which is what this thread is about.

[naomi24]

//Incomel// *Income*

[sp1814]

OG

I don't see how a maximum wage could work.

Let's say a recording artist(eg. Adele) sells five million copies of their new album - would their income be capped? Where does the rest of the money she generates go to? The Exchequer?

That would be extremely unfair. It would be like going back to the 70s where you had (citation needed here) an 80% top tax rate.

It's just unworkable. There would be little incentive for anyone to excel.

[mikey4444]

Alan Duncan, one of the most horrible and greedy of Tory MPs.

Not sure I could take him seriously if he was reading from the telephone directory !