On a more positive note

It says on the right of this page that Calton is not affiliated to any political party and, just to prove it, here are a few of his current 'likes':
Ed Miliband setting his sights on employers who exploit loopholes to pay workers less and firms who only advertise job vacancies abroad.
Nigel Farage on the Syrian refugee issue.
David Cameron on pensions - given that pensioners' savings are not earning any interest, it's the least he could do.
Danny Alexander on raising the personal tax allowance, which has been a boon to low earners.
The SNP's policy of free prescriptions.
Since we are still in the season of goodwill, and the year is not that old, Calton will leave his list of 'dislikes' for another day. He is trying to strike a positive note. Happy New Year!

Try to keep up, Ed

It's a bit late for Ed Miliband to be thinking of bringing back the 10p tax rate. It was a real help to the low paid back in the days when the personal allowance was less than £5k, and Gordon Brown made a huge error of judgement in abolishing it, but now that the Coalition Government has raised the personal allowance to more than £9k next year it has been overtaken by events. Many more people in low paid jobs, particularly part-time workers, pay no tax now, compared to 2008, and middle-income earners also benefit from the higher tax threshold. Calton is all for reducing the tax burden on the poorly paid, especially given the huge gulf between those on minimum wage and high earners, but reintroducing the 10p rate, paid for by a mansion tax, is not the way to go. We should be taxing income, not assets, otherwise we penalise those who work hard all their lives and save for a decent house in a nice area. They were taxed while they were working - why tax them again when they retire just because they've got a nice home?