National politics

[Ian]

Much as I feel JC is utterly the wrong man for the job I doubt there's any wrongdoing over the tax return, since otherwise he'd never have published it. And by publishing his, it might push others into the same action.

[Hugo]

On the income he has declared, the tax paid would be more or less correct but there may be a simple explanation for the amounts on the return.
You're right though on the comments about him being the wrong man for the job but I don't think that you'll ever get any honest transparency in politics even if all the MP's published their tax returns.

[Ian]

True...

[DaveR]

What's been astonishing is that the Conservatives recently won the Copeland by-election, capturing a seat that has been Labour since 1924. That's unprecedented, the first time a governing party has taken a seat from another party in a by-election in 35 years. Just shows how unpopular Corbyn is amongst real people.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/feb/24/tories-overturn-labour-majority-to-win-copeland-byelection

[Hugo]

That's more than just a bad day at the office!                               The Independent seems to have got the figures wrong compared to Jeremy's tax return and they have missed out the three personal pensions of £36,045.00     



 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/jeremy-corbyn-says-not-wealthy-despite-130k-salary-labour-scotland-out-of-touch-a7212811.html

[DaveR]

Corbyn's comment that he is not wealthy, despite earning £137,000 a year, shows how out of touch he really is.

[Bosun]

Corbyn's comment that he is not wealthy, despite earning £137,000 a year, shows how out of touch he really is.

Sorry chum, but with all due respect, your post actually shows how much you are the one that's out of touch. Whilst I am in no way a supporter of JC, he is the leader of the Labour Party and the Parliamentary Opposition, and £137k is not anything like a high salary in London and I'm quite surprised his income is so low. He certainly could not afford a mortgage for a house in central London on that salary. An NHS Trust Director's pay is well over £100k, as is an NHS Consultant and GP, and a rural Chief Constable's and NHS Chief Execs pay is well over £150k. It's perfectly clear that JC is certainly not in politics for the money, and by publishing his tax return, he is showing he is scrupulously clean, unlike Mrs May who has refused to publish her tax return. And, to be honest, I wouldn't want to publish my tax return to be pawed over and criticised by the press. I think that he's brave, honest and transparent, besides deluded.   

 

[DaveR]

Corbyn's comment that he is not wealthy, despite earning £137,000 a year, shows how out of touch he really is.

Sorry chum, but with all due respect, your post actually shows how much you are the one that's out of touch. Whilst I am in no way a supporter of JC, he is the leader of the Labour Party and the Parliamentary Opposition, and £137k is not anything like a high salary in London and I'm quite surprised his income is so low. He certainly could not afford a mortgage for a house in central London on that salary. An NHS Trust Director's pay is well over £100k, as is an NHS Consultant and GP, and a rural Chief Constable's and NHS Chief Execs pay is well over £150k. It's perfectly clear that JC is certainly not in politics for the money, and by publishing his tax return, he is showing he is scrupulously clean, unlike Mrs May who has refused to publish her tax return. And, to be honest, I wouldn't want to publish my tax return to be pawed over and criticised by the press. I think that he's brave, honest and transparent, besides deluded.

You're talking about a tiny, tiny, part of the population who earns those sort of amounts. Back in the real world, people round here manage on £7.20 an hour. Ask those people whether they think Corbyn is wealthy or not...  ££$

[Hugo]

and £137k is not anything like a high salary in London

Well DaveR isn't the only one out of touch with reality because you can count me in as well.   The average wage in central London in 2017 is £48,023.00   and Corbyn'e alleged income of £137K  obviously puts him in a different income bracket.
The only thing I can agree with you is that the top politicians job does appear to be underpaid in comparison to others. but he is not poor by any stretch of the imagination.

As regards Corbyn's tax return, I would imagine that the  £27K  plus that is shown as being paid as Labour Leader is because he wasn't selected as Leader until the 26th September 2015 so that amount may have been on a pro rata basis.
At least Corbyn revealed  his return in all its transparency unlike Dodgy Dave Cameron who after four years of promising just produced a summary and explanation of his tax returns.

[Ian]

It's an interesting one. In fact, more than half those living in London earn more than £34,473 and a fair number earn in excess of £200,000 (figures from ONC on the Median wage).

To be fair, JC only said he didn't think of himself as wealthy. Now, to get a true idea you'd have to see his charity donations, some of which could be learnt from the number of charities for which he's applied for tax offset. Does that make him out of touch? I always remember as a young bloke, questioning why Union leaders were paid so much. The theory went that Unions, unlike private employers, paid their management what they were worth. Of course, their worth is a highly subjective quantity. But although JC is paid well (and doesn't need a second home, either) it's a bit thick to accuse him of being out of thouch simply because he earns that amount, when rather a lot of the Tory party are earning so much they hardly know what to do with it.

I make no bones about thinking he's utterly the wrong bloke to lead the Labour party but he seems genuine and, despite all the efforts of the well-funded Tory press, nothing has been discovered about him that leads me to believe otherwise. As Bosun says, he's certainly deluded but being delusional has never seemed to be a bar to being a politician.  If anything, it sometimes seems a prerequisite.

[born2run]

That's a good point he did say he didn't think of himself as wealthy. It's all about perspective, I bet most of us don't think of ourselves as wealthy but to people in the 3rd world we all certainly would be!

He's a politician, and not just a politician but leader of the opposition. Compare what he has with the likes of Tony Blair and John Prescott and I think there is argument to say he's not as wealthy as many of his contemporary's.

Now there's argument of course to say that what he has is too much anyway, but compare what he gets to what the England football manager gets and the difference of importance between the two drops then again I can see why he may not consider himself 'wealthy'

Also every England manager since Bobby Robson has been pants 

[Hugo]

You are spot on with everything that you have said BTR and it is all about perspective.      When you think that a top football player in this country will earn more in a week than the PM or other Party leaders earn in a year, it makes you think that the world has gone mad.
You're right too about the England managers.   

[DaveR]

To be fair, JC only said he didn't think of himself as wealthy.

And that is the point. Any ordinary person who suddenly found themselves earning £137,000 a year would think themselves wealthy. The fact that he doesn't indicates, as I said originally, that he is out of touch with ordinary people in this country.

[Bosun]

You're talking about a tiny, tiny, part of the population who earns those sort of amounts.

Can I point out that there are over 1.2 million people (ONS) on basic salaries of over £100k in the UK, and that doesn't include those with all the bonuses and inducements that push salary packages over that figure. Nor does it include the businessmen and women who write everything of against tax, such as a very nice chap I know who has his boat in a local marina and an aircraft at a local airfield, both paid for and maintained at his companies expense with the full agreement of the tax officials, 'for entertaining clients' and whose company generates so much cash, he has so much stashed away that he admits that he doesn't know what to do with it, yet on paper his pay is £25k. He is not in the minority of business people; everything is written off against tax. I know a builder who writes his dog food off as he claims his dog is a guard dog and the businesses security. It may not be illegal in avoiding tax, but as that odious being Trump said, "not paying taxes makes me smart", legitimising the whole dubious arrangements. So, I suggest that 1.2 million is a mere fraction of those that actually, in reality, have over £100k a year. That is not a tiny, tiny part of the population. The ONS also suggests over 6,000 people have a salary of over £2,000,000.

As B2R says, we have wealth beyond the dreams of Avarice to the 3rd world, and possibly even, to the previous generation.

Getting back to the London issue: £137k a year when the average price of a terraced house is £650k, it costs several thousand pounds for a railcard just to get to work each year, car insurance is multiple thousands and beer tops £4.20 a pint and you spend hours every day in traffic jams whilst the air quality chokes you, just to be pilloried in the press every day of your life for simply being wrong about everything he says or does doesn't seem worth it......

[Ian]

To be fair, JC only said he didn't think of himself as wealthy.

And that is the point. Any ordinary person who suddenly found themselves earning £137,000 a year would think themselves wealthy. The fact that he doesn't indicates, as I said originally, that he is out of touch with ordinary people in this country.

But that's not what you originally said.  If I may take the opportunity to remind you:

"Corbyn's comment that he is not wealthy, despite earning £137,000 a year, shows how out of touch he really is."

I'm no defender of JC - far from it - but we need to stick to the facts. JC did not say he was not wealthy, only that he never thought of himself as wealthy.  There's a world of difference.  For a start, he's not saying he isn't wealthy.  He's better off than many, which he knows and has never denied.  But at least he's being open and honest about his earnings.  I'm far more interested in why Phil Hammond isn't publishing his tax returns.