Labour shows its loathing of success and aspiration

LABOUR has already made great play of their pledge to bring back the 50p top rate of income tax.

Ed BallsGETTY

Labour's Ed Balls refused to rule out lowering the income tax rate threshold

This is a shameless attempt to bash wealth creators, using a policy that would not even raise a significant amount of money.

But there is a danger that the party's naked hostility towards those who have been successful would extend far beyond those in the top pay bracket.

Ed Balls yesterday failed to rule out lowering the threshold for the 40 per cent income tax rate.

This would not be a tax hike for bankers and hedge-fund managers but a brutal assault on the earnings of ordinary people.

Miliband loves to bang on about "fairness".

But it is a funny sort of fairness that sees people with middle-class professional jobs forced to hand over almost half of their pay cheques to the government.

Labour is not committed to doing the right thing for hard-working people who earn a decent wage.

This is to be expected of a party governed by trade unions and run in the interests of benefit claimants.

In government it would wring whatever it can out of productive taxpayers and waste the money on benefits and bureaucracy.

If this is its idea of being fair it is not one that is widely shared.

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Prison policy made sense

JUSTICE Secretary Chris Grayling's policy of preventing violent prisoners with a history of absconding from being moved to open jails has been deemed unlawful.

With large numbers of prisoners on the run it is clear that the system of open prisons and day release is not strict enough.

The justice system has a duty to the public to keep dangerous and violent criminals off the streets until they are safe to be released. Letting them wander off defeats the very point of a prison.

Prisoners' complaints should not be allowed to take priority over protecting the public.

This policy was a common-sense one that responded quickly and effectively to a spate of prison breakouts.

It should not be abandoned.

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Long odds for the Longs

DAVID and Kathleen Long have just won £1million on the EuroMillions lottery for the second time.

The first win did not go to their heads.

They still live in the same static caravan but with their second win they are planning to buy a new home.

They are also planning a cruise to the Mediterranean.

After beating odds of 283 billion to one they have surely earned a holiday this time around.

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