My EU Opinions... Why I want to Remain!

I have posted quite a bit about tomorrow’s referendum, I'm sorry if this has annoyed any of you, however it is the biggest decision that has faced our country in our lifetimes and on a subject I feel very passionate about. I think the leave camp have been much loader and passionate in general than the remain, therefore I have felt compelled to add my voice as much as I can just to make the remain a little louder.

But that’s the problem for me, the way that this referendum is run, so much of the media coverage is focused on personalities and their campaigns (which are often allowed to spout mistruths and sometimes outright lies almost completely unchecked) rather than the actual substance and facts of the debate. There are so many issues out there and possible ramifications that it’s impossible for them all to be understood by everyone, and therefore just soundbites seem to get picked up, misinterpreted or twisted to fit whoever’s point of view that is speaking – how can you really expect the general public to make an actual objectively informed decision? Almost everyone speaking in it has a bias (I admit that I do, my company has lots of contracts directly with the EU) most of the voices that get heard are speaking out of self-interest.

Saying that it was great to hear John Barnes’s rebuttal to the Leave campaign misquoting him and his support of Remain being despite the fact that he felt it was in the best interest of British footballers to leave (http://www.independent.co.uk/…/eu-referendum-john-barnes-br…). I wish more people took a less selfish view and looked outside of their immediate area.

I could go on to talk about all the issues in depth, but here’s a summary:
> Cost of Membership: Less than Leave claims, would probably cost us the same to join the free market (as even Leave campaign would like to re-join).
> Immigration: Free movement is a cornerstone of the free market and it’s likely we’d have to agree to it if we wanted to re-join (as other countries have had to).
> Sovereignty: Around 7% of our laws come from the EU, of which there has only been 2% or so of that our representatives have been on the other side of the debate – and any major change each country (including us) has the right to veto. Also more democratic than the British Parliamentary system with it's unelected House of Lords.
> Working Conditions: It’s thanks to the EU that we initially had guaranteed holiday pay, paid maternity leave and increased workplace protection. I know nothing is stopping our own governments including these, however the Tories over the last few years have been doing their best to repeal as much of the legislation that is in place as possible to make it easier to fire people.
> Trade: Don’t even get me started on where these mythical new trading agreements are going to come from (at the moment we are a gateway point for many countries as part of a massive continental economy, we are just as likely to lose current partners as gain any more, on top of those EU ones we are bound to lose!)

There are so many more issues, and I could talk about the above for so much longer, however for me, the issue doesn’t really boil down to any of them, it’s one of personal freedoms. I consider myself a global citizen, and being in the EU has enabled me to interact with many other EU citizens that otherwise I may not have had the chance to do so, or at least not so easily. Today I ran into my Swedish friend, who moved here because she could work here and now has a beautiful daughter with her Welsh partner. This August I am going travelling with a friend of mine from Finland who was able to come over here to study. I have also met many French, Spanish, Italians, Germans, Irish, Dutch, Hungarian and Polish people who are here in part due to their ability to come here, and knowing each one has enriched my life greatly and I feel lucky to consider them my friends. I have also met many, many people through my travels in the EU, last year I was in Croatia, Serbia and Greece, I have to say it was harder being in Serbia with it not being an EU member state. I love how open it was and how easy it is to travel around Europe, and I hate the restrictions that are placed on you when you go elsewhere (like the expensive visas with time limits). As a global citizen I hate the fact that countries put up barriers to entry, and restrict how long you can stay. I have not ruled out one day living abroad, I think I would love to live in, work in and contribute to another country, this would be so much easier if I had the right to settle anywhere in Europe.

I feel nothing good can come from constructing (metaphorical or physical) borders, creating feelings of ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ and generally just disengaging with our neighbours. Humans are inherently social creatures, we all inhabit the same planet and our fate is common. The way I see it - the more alliances’ partnerships and agreements we create, the better. If nothing else I will vote remain tomorrow for LOVE, for peace, for freedom to travel, for shared knowledge and understanding, and for a dream of a world that can be more united for we have more in common than what divides us.

I don’t know if anyone has read this far but if you have and are still undecided I hope that you will consider what I’ve said and vote remain tomorrow for the hope of keeping a stronger, less divided world.

I have never been more scared...

I cannot believe that the Prime Minister, the most powerful person in our country has said:

Dave no longer wants us sticking together

"For too long, we have been a passively tolerant society, saying to our citizens: as long as you obey the law, we will leave you alone. It’s often meant we have stood neutral between different values. And that’s helped foster a narrative of extremism and grievance. This Government will conclusively turn the page on this failed approach."


I'm sorry Dave, but this approach is more likely to make people turn to extremism. Tolerance is one of those British values that we should be most proud.  Just a few days back in the job though, without Liberals holding his hand he is already back to preaching the politics of fear and using this to control the population how he sees fit.  We demonise Russia, China et al for the way that they try and control their citizens, yet somehow our Prime Minister thinks it's perfectly acceptable to do it here.  For the second time on this blog I'm going to quote Frank Turner.

"Cause a man who'd trade his liberty for a safe and dreamless sleep

Doesn't deserve the both of them and neither shall he keep"

At least they can't legally do some of the things that have been mentioned as the it is against peoples right to a private life as dictated by the Human Rights legislation that we have in place... oh... next blog for that I think.

I felt like I was in mourning...

So, one week on and it still hurts.  Five years ago I posted a lot to Facebook campaigning and lost at least one friend in the process.  This year I didn't do that, I just had one eve of election day post, then one after voting.  As such, despite pounding the streets delivering leaflets I feel that I didn't give enough.  Honestly, I don't think I was expecting us to lose in Bath, I thought the council might slip (despite their excellent record, 100% of promises kept and no council tax rises) but not the seat as well.  Therefore I feel that I've at least slightly let the party down (not that I think I could have made the difference with a massive 3,883 majority now in the Tories favour) but still, I don't want to ever feel like this again, let alone because of politics, therefore I am determined that for the next 5 years I will do whatever I can to spread the positive message of Liberalism and of the great work that Liberal Democrats did in power and I'm sure will still do even as 8 people in opposition.

Here is my post on Facebook last Friday:

Genuinely devastated.
Feel for the hard working MPs who did great work as ministers and have lost their jobs, particularly gutted for:
• Lynne Featherstone, who spent the last Parliament pushing through equal marriage and promoting equal rights in the UK and throughout the world.
• Steve Webb, who's reforms as pension minister have been praised by pretty much everyone.
• Vince Cable, first senior politician to vocally stand up against Murdoch (even if he didn't mean to do it in public), prevented Tory culls on workers rights and removed exclusivity from zero hours contracts.
• Jo Swinson, who pushed through shared parental leave, childcare for 3 - 4 year olds and did so much work against the unrealistic photoshopped images that appear in the media. (I was hoping she'd be the next leader of the party)
• Stephen Gilbert, because I really liked the guy.

Only rays of light, Tim Farron holding on, as next party leader (it's going to happen), hopefully he can make his Left Liberal voice heard. Ed Balls losing (that would have made any Labour government much more tolerable for me).

I wonder how many people in Lib/Con marginals that voted Labour or Green are happy with their new Tory MP? It may not be right but we have a broken voting system and the rhetoric of the last five years seems to have reduced tactical voting, which in my opinion was a major reason why the Tories hadn't won a majority since 1992. I reckon in 2 - 3 years time lots of people will realise what a good job the 57 Liberal Democrat MPs did over the last 5 years.

In the cold light of day, I still think a majority Conservative government is possibly the worst of the potential outcomes for the country (though perhaps Tory/UKIP coalition could have been worse), but there are some reasons to be positive about the party's prospects in 5 years time.  Firstly, a Tory government straight after the coalition will help show exactly what the Liberal influence was in that coalition.  Already, one week on we are seeing the Tories talk about doing all of the things that Nick and his team obviously prevented over the last five years - this I think may turn a few heads back into our favour.  Secondly is of course the massive surge in membership over the past week.  At first I thought maybe it might just be members we lost returning, but it seems that only 12% of those fit this bill, instead I'm hoping that it's people who are as pissed off and determined as me to make sure that over the next 5 years we are heard.

Why I wont be signing Labour's contract...

Labour recently released a contract of what they will do in power immediately once they are in power, words taken directly from their statement, and my responses:

1. Freeze gas and electricity bills until 2017 and reform the energy market
   
   I do like the irony of the former Energy Secretary leading with this, as if his three years in the post weren't sufficient for reform... Obviously energy bills need to come down - or at least stop increasing so rapidly.  The irresponsibleness of this though is the prospect of frozen bills for 20 months will lead to companies increasing their price just before the next elections - meaning people are worse off to begin with,  In addition a freeze on bills could easily lead to a freeze in investment which is needed. 
   
2. Get 200,000 homes built a year by 2020
   
   Unfortunately home building is a slow process so it will be 2016/17 before we're seeing the full impact of the coalition on the number of homes being built.  If Labour do get the figure up to 200,000 that is very admirable (although they set a target of 240,000 back in 2007 and didn't get close - I will blame the credit crunch for that one though).  Last year more homes were started (122,590) than in anyn year since 2007, so this is moving in the right direction.  There is still a long way to go - if Labour get in I hope they succeed with this.
   
3. Stop families that rent being ripped off and help them plan for the future with new long term predictable tenancies
   
   I find this a little patronising but I can see the admirable aim.  I wonder if this is the correct way to go about it.  I do like the idea of letting fees being scrapped for tenants - although I'm sure then letting agents will want to cover this loss of income so will push the cost on to the lessor who'll want to recover this with higher rent.  This is probably preferable though than to have to pay out up front for fees.
   
   I am in favour of longer term contracts (as long as the tenant is free to request a shorter term) as long as any rent changes are clearly highlighted in the contract.  The problem with a longer term contract is that there would usually be steeper penalties for someone wishing to break the contract (particularly the tenant), this would also be a concern.
   
4. Cut income tax for hardworking people through a lower 10p starting tax rate and introduce a 50p top rate of tax as we pay off the deficit in a fair way.
   
   First of NO! Just NO!  Labour please go back and read that sentence, correcting it for something that can actually be done.  A deficit is not the same as debt!!!  In this country we currently are running a deficit due to spending more than is being received in taxes, this in turn increases our total level of debt.  A deficit is not something that can be paid off - it can be reduced until we reach a surplus, but we wont have paid it back just because the books become balanced!  I don't think in my lifetime we'll see the debt reduced at all - yes I expect the odd year of a surplus, but it will be a drop in the ocean compared with the level of debt (currently nearly £1.375 TRILLION) which obviously we finance resulting in money being spent on interest payments rather than on other things like schools and healthcare... anyway back to the actual point...
   
   During this Parliament the Personal Allowance has already increased to £10,000, which has massively reduced the amount of tax paid by the low paid.  Introducing a 10p rate of tax is not as progressive as increasing the allowance before people pay any tax (even if both thresholds were adjusted so the same amount of tax was being paid by a person in the 20% tax band, this is because those who are only just into the tax paying threshold will be paying 10p rather than 0p).  I realise he's trying to differentiate from the coalition and the Liberal Democrat's fantastic work in this area but it doesn't make this policy good.  (I wrote more about the 10p tax rate here - I actually do like a 10p rate, but not at the expense of an increased PA)
   
   Regarding the 50p rate, I am in favour as long as it increases tax revenues (and isn't just a populist measure to be seen to be effectively punishing people for being rich).  Unfortunately the richest in our society are also the ones able to obtain the best financial advice which is probably why when the 50p rate was introduced late in the last Labour Government's tenure we saw income declared to the tax man fall among those who were now eligible for this tax.
   
5. Ban Exploitative zero-hour contracts
   
   I am just against this on pure principle, again I find it patronising that Labour feel that zero-hour contracts don't work for anyone.  I'm sure there are many cases where they work for both the employee and the employer, Only 27% of those on a zero-hour contract state that they are dissatisfied with not having a minimum number of hours in their contracts.  Just because an employee is contracted doesn't always mean that the employee has to accept the work, with only 15% of employers saying that it is always mandatory, and 80% of employees saying that they aren't penalised for not working.  If Labour/Ed really feel strongly about these being exploitative then I personally would reform them in order to say that someone should only have to be available to work for the number of hours on their contract - which means for a zero hour contract there'd be no requirement from either the employer or the employee allowing flexibility on both parts.
   
6. Make work pay by strengthening the Minimum Wage and providing tax breaks to firms that boost pay through the Living Wage
   
   The Lib Dem's current policy of linking the Minimum Wage to the personal allowance would help to strengthen it.  In order for the boosting pay to work the tax breaks would have to be sufficient enough that it is more beneficial for the business, which could be rather costly indeed.
   
7. Back small businesses by cutting business rates and reforming the banks
   
   Business rates fine (assuming it's just for small businesses), I'd like to see them all revalued though since I believe it's still based on data from 1990 - i.e. 24 years ago!  Not sure what specific banking reform we are supposed to be expecting here - particularly vague promise.
   
8. Help working parents with 25 hours of free childcare for three- and four- year olds
   
   Can't argue with this promise, the Liberal Democrats/Coalition have already made childcare effectively tax free as well as increasing the number of free hours for 3/4 year olds to 15 per week, but obviously more can be done, and should be done as it increases the participation of women in the workforce.
   
9. Tackle the abuse of migrant labour to undercut wages by banning recruitment agencies that only hire foreign workers and pressing for stronger controls in Europe.
   
   I know there have been instances of jobs only advertised in Polish, but I haven't heard of many cases.  Without knowing how much of an issue this is (as it doesn't appear prevalent in my area) I can't really comment, but the fact it is in here just sounds like pandering to the UKIP crowd.  I worry that it's stirring up even more xenophobia.  
   
10. Back the next generation with a job guarantee for the young unemployed and more apprenticeships.
    
    I don't think anyone can argue with the aim of getting more people into work, and I whole heartedly agree that apprenticeships are good - which is why I'm pleased that there were around 510,000 starters on apprenticeship courses in 2012/13 compared with just 279,000 in 2009/10.  I know from my personal experience that the government schemes are helping as my employer is looking to take on an apprentice starting in the 2014/15 academic year.
    
    The jobs guarantee however worries me.  It's all about how these jobs are guaranteed - i.e. what the jobs are and how the arose.  For instance, ensuring that someone who has been unemployed for 2 years can have 6 months stacking shelves in say Tesco, means that Tesco will need an incentive to take them on, replacing a job that would have already existed.  This means that a Labour government would therefore end up subsidising Tesco - providing them with cheaper employment rather than giving the job to someone else who's currently say short-term, meaning that these people will now be claiming benefits.  If on the other hand the jobs are created as public programmes then this might work - although would be costly. 

So there you have what Labour promise to do, my thoughts on each issue.  As much as I'd like to think otherwise I'm sure they'll win the next election - if they don't (considering the fall off in the left vote from the Lib Dems and the split in the right vote between Tories and UKIP) then Labour will have had a disastrous campaign.  

Overall it seems very populist with a lot of give-aways - I understand these are their tempters/hooks to try and reel in voters but I have to wonder how they can afford this whilst "paying off the deficit" as they put it since very few if any of these will increase revenue.

Lets see how they do with these in Government, assuming Ed doesn't mess it up. 

One thing I hate about politics is...

...Scheming/infighting/plots.  Years of watching Tony Blair's government it seemed that people were only there for their own advantage - trying to get themselves to a higher position and not for the good of their country or even their party.  You only needed to look at Gordon Brown to see him eyeing up the job that he really wanted.

As much as I hate the confrontational nature of the different parties - always fighting and rarely working together, opposing for oppositions sake to seem populist/trying to paint everything that the opposition does in a bad light, I find this even uglier when it comes from within a party.  

Now I'm not saying that Lord Oakeshott shouldn't have commissioned a poll at all, but doing so in constituencies without the knowledge of their MPs, then sitting on the results and releasing them at the time that could be deemed most damaging to the leader just screams at putting his own interests ahead of his parties.

Apparently that poll cost in the region of £20,000.  I'm also definitely not saying what Lord Oakeshott should be spending his money on (I'm sure he's been very generous where the party is concerned), but I bet there are a few former counsellors/MEPs that could have put that money to use benefiting the party.  Personally I'm gutted to see Graham Watson no longer an MEP.  

I am of the opinion that only positive campaigning can win back support towards our party, positive messages being put out about what we have manage to achieve, even as the junior partner in the coalition and what we want to achieve from 2015:

• Income tax threshold increased to £10,000 (basically changing the way people think about income tax for the low paid).
• Restoring the Earnings link with Pensions.
• Introducing the Pupil Premium (£1,300 per eligible pupil in primary schools and £935 per eligible pupil in secondary schools in 2014-15)
• Ended Child Detention.
• Equal Marriage.

We should be screaming these and everything else from the roof tops!

Yes people find us untrustworthy after the tuition fees debacle but we should be pointing out our positive influence still - that even part time students don't now have to pay fees up front, that effectively they'll be paying off their maintenance loans first  - which are larger than they would be if there were no fees, meaning students themselves are better off unless they become successful in which case they are making a larger contribution than previously to their education that made them successful.  (I am not saying that this is the exact policy I would have, but it's better than when my parents had to pay over £1,000 up front each year in order for me to attend University!) 

We should be shouting out what a future parliament including the Liberal Democrats would mean for people in this country, not shouting at each other.  If we don't have a message of what we believe in and what we hope to achieve from 2015 why would people vote for us?  Ed Miliband may be putting forward a lot of barely thought through populist nonsense, but at least he is trying to carve an identity for his party.  

The Liberal Democrats are a democratic party, we win together, we lose together, this in fighting is doing nobody any favours and making us look as bad, if not worse than the rest when what we've always campaigned on is being different. 

Sophie's legacy

In a perfect world we wouldn't need "hate crime" legislation, if a crime is committed then people should be punished for the crime almost irrespective of motive or who they victim is, otherwise wouldn't you be treating people differently under the law?  'Hate crimes' are usually of a violent nature, but surely most violent crimes derive from some form of hatred for the victim and some underlying prejudice against that person and hence be considered a hate crime?  This labelling could also be self fulfilling, when attributed too commonly it could lead to groups feeling persecuted even if there isn't an underlying bias against them.

However, we don't live in a perfect world.  The argument is that a 'hate crime' causes greater personal and social harm.  By attacking a person for who they are (rather than say using something that they've done as a motive) you are effectively attacking their identity and if such crimes become common place it can really lead to a feeling of disempowerment by that group.  Often, just the recognition that crimes towards a group are caused by underlying prejudices is the first step to showing that the group are being discriminated against.

If I were legislators I wouldn't be putting boundaries on what can or can't be described as a 'hate crime', as long as the motive was just some underlying prejudice there then the legislation should apply.  However boundaries have been put in place, in the UK these are membership (or assumed membership of):

• A religious group,
• A racial group, or:
• Sexual orientation,
• Disability.

Sophie (R.I.P)

There is a reason I am writing this blog now, Greater Manchester Police have started recording attacks on 'subcultures' as hate crimes.  I can't put into words how happy I am to see this.  I briefly alluded to this in my HMV post, this is the one area where I have been the victim of discrimination and in fact, one area where I have received abuse for nothing other than the way I look/dress etc.  

For those of you who are unaware this has probably stemmed as a result of campaigning by the Sophie Lancaster Foundation. This is a charity that was set up after Sophie Lancaster and her boyfriend Robert Maltby were attacked whilst walking through a park in 2007 because they were wearing goth clothing.  Unfortunately Sophie ended up in a coma from which she never woke up, basically she was kicked to death because she looked different.

This issue isn't something that gets much attention at all, but it is very real, below are a few of the instances I've personally experienced:

• When I was 16/17, walking home from college with a friend who had green hair (we were both probably dressed as moshers - baggy jeans and a band hoodie, that was our usual dress for college) a car slowed, wound down it's windows and threw an empty bottle in our direction whilst shouting abuse. 
• When I was 17 I'd been on a night out with a few friends, 2 of us got the bus back together (same person as above actually) and as we got off the bus 2 other guys started following us and ended up chasing us, I seem to remember he took a punch before we got away (he was always the unlucky one).  I can't say that this was just due to how we looked but it felt that way.
• When I was 18/19 and walking home from a night out (so the early hours of the morning) I was followed for about a mile by three guys about my own age (who stayed about 20 - 30 yards behind me) who kept shouting different derogatory comments about me being a goth.  (I was wearing a long leather coat and had long hair).  I assume they were trying to draw me into confrontation or just intimidate me.
• When I was 19 I was sat on a bus with a friend who also had long hair and the 3 guys behind us kept pulling on his hair (I think they knew him), talking about how they were going to shave it off and were being generally intimidating, fortunately though they got off before us and not at the same time.

I know these aren't the worst examples of discrimination/intimidation in the world but they are the ones that spring to mind that I personally experienced.  In general in school and college, once I started dressing differently (wearing band hoodies etc) I lost count of the number of times people used to use it as a basis for derogatory terms.  (The style wasn't common amongst people in my area, there were very few of us). Some were much more vocal than others, and I did escape the worst of it but a few of my friends were quite badly bullied because of it.

Without a change in legislation all the force can do is record this as an element of the crime, but I think it is a huge starting point.  Hopefully this will help to illustrate that it is something that exists and by acknowledging it it will make a difference, make people feel safer and be the starting point into making it socially unacceptable.

One day maybe we will live in a world where people treat others with respect irrespective of how they look or what they believe in.  I can't see this ever happening but it doesn't mean we shouldn't try and shouldn't celebrate each improvement.  Hopefully Sophie's family's awesome work will have a lasting legacy.

Thoughts on 10p tax rate (I like) and mansion taxes (I don't)...

Okay, so Labour's announcement regarding some actual policies that I posted about earlier has made me want to analyse the actual policies, irrespective of party involvement (given half of the announcement was stealing a Lib Dem policy that I'm not overly sold on).  Anyway, here are my comments about each:

10p Tax Rate

The potential reintroduction of this depends on what your objectives are for a tax system.  If you are looking for a simple system that as many people as possible can understand then adding another band makes for added complications.  If you are looking to make it as progressive as possible then adding a lower band above the level of the personal allowance makes the system more progressive.

In a mutually exclusive case, increasing the personal allowance or introducing a new lower tax band, the former benefits lower earners more than the latter.  However, if you do both at the same time or if they are just being compared to sticking with the status quo then each change would be progressive.  This is one criticism that is being thrown at it, that it doesn't benefit people as much as a personal allowance increase would, however my personal opinion is that it doesn't go far enough.  My ideal tax system would have 10p, 20p, 30p, 40p and 50p rates.  

The thing with tax simplification is that tax bands don't really add too much additional complications, especially when most people are earning through the PAYE system.  The complications come in with all of the exemptions and special cases - it is there that governments should be looking to simplify the system, not with the rates.  In addition, they should scrap the other confusing complication - National Insurance contributions, rolling them into the income tax rates.  It is crazy that the basic rate "20%" tax payer effectively pays 32% tax whilst the higher rate "40%" tax payer effectively pays 42%, the money just goes into the same pot anyway.  I know not everyone or every transaction that is taxed includes NIC's, however this could be adjusted.  

The key of course is to make sure that nobody is paying more tax than they can afford to pay, whilst those who earn the most contribute the most.  

It was Gordon Brown who, in 2007, scrapped the 10p tax to help pay for the reduction in the basic rate from 22p to 20p per pound from April 2008.  This was regressive at the time and rightly he faced a backlash, however he corrected it in September 2008 for the 2008/09 tax year meaning that nobody actually lost out from this change.   This change did therefore simplify the system, but as discussed it probably wasn't the area that needed simplifying.  If this comes in, as long as it's not at the expense of increasing the personal allowance, then I'll be for it, if it doesn't correspond with a raise in the personal allowance as suggested by the Lib Dems, well it's a poorer alternative.

Mansion Tax

I've said a few times now that I'm yet to be convinced about a mansion tax.  I can see the potential desirability of a wealth tax, there is even worse equality with wealth than income in the country and it is desirable to strive for less inequality but I am not sure that this is a one size fits all, or even a good solution.  I have reasons...

Firstly, there is the practical aspect, how often will properties be reassessed?  The current Council Tax bandings are totally out of date where as this will be much more specific than that so much harder to keep up to date (Council Tax doesn't claim to be an exact science, this is an exact calculation).  Granted the complexity of implementation shouldn't be the major consideration but it should be taken into account.  Prices fluctuate, and you know any assessment will be open to debate and appeal - which will probably be lost.  Also, if a house is worth £2.1m without the tax, simply adding a tax to it will reduce it's value.  Also, every single house in the country will need to be revalued and this will have to happen regularly!

Secondly, and for me more importantly, houses are very illiquid assets.  There are many people who buy a house and expect to live it all of their lives.  Now I know we are talking about really high value houses so one assumes that the owners were well off enough to buy it, but that doesn't mean that they'll necessarily have the disposable cash/income to cover an increase in their annual tax bill just because their house's value has risen in such a way.  I've heard a lot of comments saying that if they don't have the cash then they could downsize, but how is that fair?  Forcing someone to leave the home that they purchased is hardly what I'd call a fairer tax.

I think the main reason I struggle with it is that it is effectively a double tax.  Basically any tax such as this is saying, we don't think we taxed you enough when you earned your money, so we are coming back for another crack at it.  I also don't like the way that the discussion is framed, it always seems to imply that those who live in expensive houses don't deserve to be there, they lucked into it and didn't work hard to get there. 

My final criticism is though that it only looks at one asset a person (or persons) owns.  If you want to target the wealthiest in society how does this help?  A rich person could own 10 houses all worth around £1.9million each and avoid the tax all together, where as if this was all tied up on one £19m property they'd be paying an annual tax of £170,000.  I feel that it penalises a person for a particular lifestyle choice/the way that they chose to use money that they had previously had left over from their income after already paying tax, for me the discussion in favour of this always seems to sound like it stems from jealousy.

I am fully aware that I am in the minority of my party (and probably now the Labour party) here when I say this, but the arguments for it just haven't sold me - after all, personally I'd replace council tax with a small local income tax and multiple property taxes, maybe in time though I'll come round to the idea.