h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Whilst many people are delighted at the sudden re-appearance of this subject to official Labour Party Policy, am I alone in feeling that the re-distribution is going to be of a very specific nature ?

Obviously politicians will have to be exempt otherwise they won't vote for it.

Similarly lawyers will have to be exempt otherwise they won't draft it. Indeed we'd better exclude the entire legal profession otherwise they won't enforce it.

We'll have to exclude the seriously rich, because all they will do is move their money elsewhere, or get their accountants to find ways round it.

Better exclude accountants as well.

Obviously we'll need to exclude media tycoons.

Labour party contributors will also need to have a get out clause.

So we need to redistribute some of the money that hard-working people are earning, without upsetting any group vocal enough or organised enough to cause us problems. (Note exclude transport drivers - don't want THAT fiasco back.)

Gottit! We'll tax all overtime at double rate. This will discourage people from working it, meaning there'll be more job vacancies, and nobody can complain about 'extra' money being taxed twice. Now where did I put Gordon's phone number ?

Brilliant! You sound even more cynical than me, which is quite an achievement!

Not sure about the media tycoons, though. If we taxed Rupert Murdoch highly enough, could he be induced to stop operating in Britain, thus instantly improving the quality of our media?

No more Sun! We can dream...