Inheritance tax is grossly unfair

The Financial Times has published remarkable data on inheritance tax in the UK. Just five London parliamentary constituencies paid more inheritance tax than the whole of Scotland and Wales combined. Ten London seats paid more than the entire north of England over five years.

But the FT then drew the wrong conclusion.

This video explains why the real story is not that Britain depends on wealthy Londoners to fund the state. A currency-issuing government does not depend on the rich for money. Instead, the data reveals something much bigger and more important, which is the catastrophic consequences of the concentration of wealth in London and the long-term failure of UK regional economic policy.

I explain what tax is actually for, why inheritance tax is meant to redistribute wealth, and why the UK economy has become so distorted that entire regions have been systematically left behind.

This is a story about inequality, financial power, failed neoliberal economics and the political choices that created modern Britain.

The real question is not whether the government can afford to, or should, tax wealth. It is about why wealth has been allowed to become so concentrated in the first place.

If you want to understand inheritance tax, inequality, the role of the Financial Times in the wealth tax debate, and why Britain’s economy increasingly works only for a wealthy minority, this video explains the bigger picture.