Each persons income and tax in the public domain?

I do find it hard to listen on here. All I can hear are clicks.

Whether you notice or not has nothing to do with whether you object or not, bags.

You really need to be more careful with your criticism.

Harrigran

Priceless , so true.

There's far too much assuming going on here already. I too couldn't give a toss what any of them wear.

I certainly don't believe it's Corbyn's dress sense or lack of it that's held him back all these years, although you may choose to think so.

Wouldn't have taken him so long ana if he had 54k style guide and a similar amount to buy them.

Always assuming style over substance is your thing.

I've told you before, dj, that I never had any objections to his clothes (when you previously were defending his choice of attire). It has occurred to me a few times that you don't listen enough.

Well, it's taken him long enough...

Good that you didn't notice. It shows he looked like the sort of politician that gets on in the world.

Suit? What suit? I didn't notice the clothes. I was looking at his face. You know, the important bit of a person who's talking.

I thought Corbyn was being very sincere too. I get the impression he only does very sincere but I think it would help if he had a bit more... well.... oomph.

Good for him! I bet what he said was far more interesting than what he looked like though, whether you agreed or not. Talking about what people look like or their mannerisms is so last decade, as my GS would say.

He looked quite smart, dark suit, red tie, shirt. Paid for it himself, too.

Sorry to have put an unfortunate image in your own heads.

Ooops! Haha, I mean he was A talking head.

No, he was 'talking head' from a studio in Scotland.

Nothing about his suit then?

I find it hard to watch Corbyn too thatbags and yes, he always speaks the way he did this morning , but what I find unnerving is the sniffs, I find I am waiting for them to happen. He will now be publishing his tax returns, so we are told.I agree harrigran Our tax is a private matter, and don't see that anyone should have to publish them.

I watched Corbyn, and thought he was being very sincere and put quite a bit of expression into what he said.

That's very rude, harrigran.

Cameron was all for transparency until he realised it affected him. He criticised others for doing what he has done. He has been caught out.

Actually the question of NI is important. It should not be rolled up into tax.
It should be kept as NI to pay for the NHS and pensions, and the cap removed.
Rich people might be able to fiddle their taxes but they cannot fiddle NI on earnings, and they cannot opt out.

Cameron's earnings are substantial enough for him to have given himself a very hefty tax cut last year and this year. Very 'lucky' for him.
Taxpayers pay the salaries of MPs and we should be able to find out if we are getting value for money.
I also think that he should go before the Parliamentary standards commissioner.
He has brought his position into disrepute with all the furore and secrecy this week.

Lovely imagery, harri

I just tried to listen to Jeremy Corbyn on the Marr show. I couldn't. It's not what he says but how he says it thst I found very disturbing. Is he always so monotonic when he speaks? Does he always look half asleep?

I hadn't realised these things before because I've only read about things he has said. The only other politician I simply couldn't listen to was Margaret Thatcher. That was because of all the plums in her mouth and her coldness of visage.

Weird, the pair of them.

Think I'll carry on just reading.

Have to agree with bags, private financial affairs are exactly that ... private. This country seems to be full of nosy old women who need to know the far end of a fart and which way it blew.

Sorry only skimmed through the last couple of pages but what is all the fuss about? If DC has been obliged to reveal all this personal information I think all MPs and top civil servants should be forced to do the same. That would unleash a can of worms because whatever methods were used by DC's advisers will have been used by many others too.

I suspect DC only revealed a bit at a time as he understood that he had done nothing wrong and couldn't possibly have anticipated that such a non-story would run and run. At least he has manned up and said it is his own fault and not tried to hide behind anyone else. It is good when someone admits mistakes and doesn't push the blame on others.

It has been said over and over again that nothing wrong has been done but we are now back in the politics of envy. I wouldn't mind being in the position of making such choices.

Another point is that I am not sure all these wealthy people have any idea where there money is. DH doesn't have a clue, he just signs whatever I put in front of him.

I agree with Eloethan that daphne's point is really important. Do we really think it is OK that the overall income of the very rich is taxed at a lower rate than the overall income of the middle-earners and the poor? The so called "squeezed middle" (earnings either side of £40,000) are, in addition to the squeeze on jobs at this level which is generally lowering salaries, increasing work-load or cutting jobs altogether, squeezed by the government/treasury too.

I also agree with NanBridget that transparency is the only way forward. Given that openness (of all incomes and tax) you would soon see the media adding the NI on to the tax of groups of people and, I am pretty sure, we would see that many very rich and rich would pay a lot smaller proportion of tax on their income (including "unearned").

It would be great if the Conservatives took steps towards ensuring more transparency and fairness. The problem with that is that their ideology is for a "small state" with very low taxation. Many Conservatives believe the tax system to be unfair and see it as totally justified to use methods of avoiding tax because they disagree with the principle of those earning the most paying the most.

On the Conservative Support website, these are the values that are headed up:

"Free market, Small state, Low taxes, Independence, Individuality, Self determination"

That's a tall order, NanaBridget. Cameron and Osborne have presided over making this country more divided and unfair than it has ever been before.
Do you think that, because they have been caught out, they will now change their whole philosophy?

www.taxresearch.org.uk will show you how it should be done, but Cameron does not like Richard Murphy.