Squeeze is a bit rich

THE FRIDAY THING: BEWARE! Tax is about to get even more taxing, thanks to the adulterous half of the Collision Government which, while being in a relationship with the Tories, is actually scrambling under the duvet with Ed Milliband’s Labour.

Not, I know, a pretty thought. But that’s politics for you.

Having cosied up together, Labour and the Lib-Dems are now keen to press ahead with a new tax on expensive homes - mansion tax — and are looking at ways to get tax investigators in to tot up the value of things like jewellery, expensive pictures and little treasures the likes of Labour and Lib-Dem politicians are unable to afford, so that they can stick a tax on them.

A committee including, inevitably, Nick Clegg not only wants to stick tax on people’s possessions but also on any items Mr and Mrs Rich have given away over the previous 15 years. In other words you can finish up paying tax on something you no longer possess (and have already paid various taxes on), which seems absolutely crazy.

Careful: it’s just a short step from this to a tax on window shopping or browsing stuff on Amazon.

Where will it all end? And will those with a big house, a safe full of dosh, drawers packed with jewellery and a couple of cars in the garage and paintings adorning the walls simply pack up and leave for somewhere that believes in, you know, fairness?

Of course the rich should pay more in taxes than the poor and in the main, they do.

But who - and this is the 64,000 dollar question - would trust either Labour or the Lib-Dems to spend their ill-gotten tax gains wisely?


THOSE of us who spend time in the shops, stores and cafes of Oldham will have noticed that a lot of local folk are, well, fat. We would be able to get far more people into the shops if they weren’t.
There have been campaigns to crack down on smoking, alcohol and to some extent, sugar-packed drinks, but until now little, it seems, has been done about actually being fat.

But now Oldham has begun running programmes to steer young children away from fat-inducing lifestyles before they join the bumpy, bouncy, bulging throng on the streets.

This is no nagging, lecturing programme but a series of 10-week courses about the mind - the way people think or don’t think about what they eat and drink; exercise, nutrition and putting mind, exercise and nutrition at the top of their thoughts.

The whole family can join in — an essential ingredient if the children are to sustain their walk, run and dash for fitness and the consequential loss of weight.

There’s a long way to go, but it’s a start, and a lot more useful than taxes and hectoring.