Our NHS needs to be properly funded through the public purse; through the tax system, and the burden of that cost needs to fall proportionately on the shoulders of us all. Unfortunately we know that’s not the case. The wealthier you are, proportionately the less you pay.  Wealth isn’t arrived at without the help of others, and it’s not just down to ability unfortunately, and perhaps even more so today, it’s down to luck.

Rich folk will tell you they already pay a lot of tax. That might well be the case, but it’s tax they pay on their income, not their wealth. There is a big difference between the two. This government has allowed tax breaks for the wealthy on the grounds that some of this success might rub off on the rest of us who are not so fortunate with the hand life has dealt us. Given the massive inequalities that currently exist, that plan clearly does not work.

We need a Wealth Tax if we truly believe what we say that “The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a fair, free and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental values of liberty, equality and community, and in which no-one shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity.”