SARAH VINE: No wonder the millionaires are fleeing a nation ruled by politics of envy By Sarah Vine for the Daily Mail Published: 20:36 EDT, 8 October 2024 | Updated: 20:37 EDT, 8 October 2024 e-mail View comments Bye-bye Belgravia; sayonara South Kensington; ciao Chelsea; night-night Notting Hill. As the Government puts the finishing touches to its planned raid on non-doms and other financially fortunate individuals, the nation’s wealthy are preparing to flee. According to new analysis by the Adam Smith Institute, the share of the population who are millionaires is expected to plunge by 20 per cent over the course of this Parliament.
Where are they off to? Germany , France and Italy . In some cases, America. I can’t say I blame them.
Even before this hypocritical, class-obsessed government came to power, Britain has always had a peculiar attitude to people with money. Where most cultures see wealth and wealth creation as a good thing overall, in Britain we tend to look down our noses at it. Culturally, we endlessly romanticise poverty on stage, screen and in print.
We obsess about deprivation in a patronising and simplistic way, seemingly ignoring the fact that anyone who has known true hardship does their best to escape it. Individuals such as Pimlico Plumbers' Charlie Mullins, who do well financially through hard work, are reviled as traitors to their class But even that is considered unacceptable: individuals who do well financially through hard work are rev.
