That Populism Thingy

An attempt by the tax office to recover the cost of Dave Hartnett's little gift to Goldman Sachs by squeezing small businesses over minor errors has drawn a degree of criticism from some headline-hungry Conservative back-benchers. "It seems as though HMRC sees small businesses as low-lying fruit to meet their targets," blathered the new intake for Witham, who appears to regard fruit as some sort of self-concealing, ambush-oriented creature. "That kind of persecution is outrageous." Whatever their size, after all, commercial tax dodgers do not claim housing benefit; and even the smallest may one day grow up to sell a directorship or so for a seat in the Lords. Doubtless the whole nasty business is the fault of Europe, the top tax rate, the Liberal Democrats and the previous Labour government, not necessarily in that order; and doubtless the universal panacea of privatisation is not far away.