Bloomberg's Tom Keene, today, in the midst of all the medieval broo ha ha over the Jubilee asked the question, tongue in cheek, if a windfall tax was going to be imposed on the Queen. But, its not a bad question.
The Royals, after all, never tire of telling us how much they are really just one of us, even though all the wealth and pageantry that surrounds them tells a very different story, but, if they mean that, then why not from all their vast wealth should they have a windfall tax on them, to help pay for the costs of lockdown, the effects of the economic war against Russia and so on?
Fortunately, around me there seems very little sign of the flummery and cap doffing to an outmoded feudal regime that the media has been trying to engender, but there are one or two houses, where the residents have displayed their ignorance and continued subservience to a bunch of feudal overlords who got to where they are as a result of their ancestors being bigger butches and thieves than their competitors. In a country that repeatedly talks about its commitment to democracy, and sometimes even equality, and sends its military all over the world to fight battles, supposedly on that basis - a military that still technically belongs to the Monarch - it is grotesque that it supports such an outdated, unelected institution.
Over the last few months, Keir Starmer and the PLP championed the idea of a windfall tax on the big energy companies. In my earlier post, I set out why that was a bad idea, and does nothing to address the problems of British workers, of inflation, or of high energy prices. But, if Labour is so keen on the idea, a windfall tax on the Queen, and the rest of the royal parasites seems an obvious choice. They have plenty of our money appropriated over the centuries to be able to pay it; they are not going to reduce their productive investment in response to it, because they contribute none in the first place; they are not going to shift their operations abroad, because they can't, and although the US frequently is cited as loving them, it undertook a revolution to rid themselves of our Monarchy (George III), and have shown no desire to reinstitute the role themselves.
So, come on Sir Keir, do the decent thing, and follow the logic of your Windfall tax proposals and call for a Windfall tax on the Queen. What better day than today to do it!?
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