.

"I chose to remain a domiciled taxpayer for a couple of reasons. The main one was that I wanted my children to grow up where I grew up, to have proper roots in a culture as old and magnificent as Britain’s; to be citizens, with everything that implies, of a real country, not free-floating ex-pats, living in the limbo of some tax haven and associating only with the children of similarly greedy tax exiles. 

A second reason, however, was that I am indebted to the British welfare state; the very one that Mr. Cameron would like to replace with charity handouts. When my life hit rock bottom, that safety net, threadbare though it had become under John Major’s Government, was there to break the fall. I cannot help feeling, therefore, that it would have been contemptible to scarper for the West Indies at the first sniff of a seven-figure royalty cheque. This, if you like, is my notion of patriotism. On the available evidence, I suspect that it is Lord Ashcroft’s idea of being a mug".

I like taxes and I believe in benefits. When people ask us to reduce our prices in exchange for cash payment something dies inside me. If it wasn't for being supported by the benefit system when I was too ill to work, my life would be very very different right now. I'm just guessing, but I'd imagine: no marriage, no babies, no business (with which to pay taxes.)

Needless to say, I love JK Rowling and would like to give her a big kiss, right on the smacker.



*JK Rowling in The Times
*Image by Thomas Krauss