to go into homes across the country and value everything they could find?

Those whom the gods wish to destroy ....

The Skin

They'd obviously go after the "rich" first but when it comes to the bulk of the population the issue ignores the fact that everyday assets were bought using income which had already been taxed. Buy-to-let is a separate issue but I would think that a lot of that stuff is heavily mortgaged anyway and so the net values may not be that high.

Apart from that as pnwmom said above - how will they value all and sundry ?

And why do you, and non sociopath skin, target Clegg? Is it that big Mail picture of him that has made you think that way? Are you that easily led?

"They'd obviously go after the "rich" first" - well, yes, that's what a tax on wealth above £2 million would be. dipsydoodle, are you really going to post a 'slippery slope' argument on DU that taxing the wealthy is the first step in taxing the bulk of the population in this way, and therefore must never be done?

target the rich with a set lower limit . £2 million whatever and leave it be at that.

I don''t actually trust either main party to not lower the limit at a later date despite any related promises they may make in future manifestos.

that it would not be cost-effective to do this with anyone who is not rich, as doing a careful evaluation of the possessions of every Joe or Jane Bloggs would cost much more money than it would net. Governments do often lack common sense, but not generally to that degree.

Firstly, the LibDems may have any number of ideas, but if the Tories don't want them to happen, they won't. The LibDems may occasionally be successful in vetoing something that the Tories want, but virtually never at pushing through something that the Tories don't want.

Secondly, why should people in principle not be taxed for the assets that they own? I agree that just having tax inspectors march in to people's homes would be a bad idea, but it should be possible to require some sort of independent audit.

Thirdly, if it is intrusive or anti-privacy to inspect the possessions of the rich - why is it OK to invade the privacy of the poor? Why is it OK to have this bloody 'bedroom tax'? Why should ATOS have the right to humiliate disabled people?

This has all the hallmarks of a typical Fail On Sunday scaremongering article, the fact that it's come out so close to the Eastleigh by-election only increases the sense that this is little more then an attempt to scare well off folk in Eastleigh into voting against the Lib Dems.

I don't see how the Lib Dems could achieve this in any case. The Tories would never agree to it, and parts of the scheme appear unworkable, if not unsellable anyway.

.

The Guardian posted later and when I posted there was only the Mail link.

Good luck to 'em with my banjos.

Fairy nuff.

Why do I go after Clegg? Because he's propping up the most reactionary Tory government ever, a government which is destroyiing life in my part of the world and dismantling the NHS.

In a hung parliament, he could have had his party vote issue by issue. But you don't get a ministerial car and a posh office if you do that.

Please note, Muriel, that the collapse of the Lib Dem vote hereabouts is not due to higher-than-average readership of the Daily Mail.

The Skin

Right, but for not being quite right-wing enough. While the particular plan is probably indeed badly-thought-out, the DM is against ANY sort of increased taxation on the rich, or other progressive economic policy.

Similarly, people on GD sometimes quote the DM approvingly because it criticizes Blair and New Labour - but in fact, it is doing so from the Right rather than the Left. After all, it's pretty clear that the DM doesn't even think that Cameron is right-wing enough!

who have now turned away from them for joining the Cameron government?

It seems worth thinking about, since it's a move to the left. It's worth reading the Guardian piece on it, linked in #10, rather than just the Mail hit-piece.

2)While I'm all for taxing the rich for all they've got, sending in a Bling Gestapo to search people's homes sounds like exactly the sort of civil liberties nightmare the LD's traditionally denounce with righteous indignation.

Besides, by the time they got the chance to bring this in, all the jewelry in the UK would be in safe deposit boxes in the Caymans. This type of proposal never works if you announce it in advance.