Naming the profiteer
WE always tell the pollsters that we like pay- ing taxes. How happily would we pay more, so we say, in support of such sacred cows as the Health Service. Gordon Brown may have made the mistake of believing us. The high price of oil makes his revenues rise, because he taxes what he likes to call added value. So does the weakening pound, because oil is priced in dollars, thus adding (or so he might explain to us) even more value for him to tax. It is all in a good cause, so he says. The funny thing is that we don't seem to care for it. However hard he and his colleagues try to deflect our annoyance — blaming Shell, or the sheikhs, or the stage army of truckers and farmers — we know whom the profiteer is, and we resent him. We may not, after all, be content for him to appropriate two-fifths of our incomes, year in, year out. If we want to support a good cause, we can do that ourselves.
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