Taxed to the limit
From Jomy Hurwitz Sir: I write in support of Ross Clark (Labour is turning Britons into paupers', 16 October), I am a South African economic migrant and I happily pay my dues: life insurance, home insurance, mortgage insurance, credit card insurance, national insurance, private health insurance, buildings insurance, car insurance, council tax, corporation tax, income tax, value added tax, airport tax, PAYE, congestion charge, parking meters. It costs me a fortune but at least it makes me work hard — we all know how good a motivator fear of debt can be.
But having grown up in a country without a welfare system, I find it amazing that a significant proportion of my English social circle do absolutely no work and yet lead a lifestyle just like mine, apart from the fact that they get to spend more time with their children. This level of state dependence appears to be endemic in British society but it can't continue. With oil prices on an upward journey, long-term global war an inevitability and the stock markets failing yet again, the £57 billion pension shortfall is looking dangerously like a hole that only heavy taxation can fill. But who among us can afford to pay more?
Jonty Hunvitz
London W2
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