Jack Straw has stated that you should be a full UK taxpayer before you can sit in Parliament and represent UK citizens. Does this not invert the value: “No taxation without representation!”
The move to outlaw non-doms from positions in parliament follows a protracted debate within government amid criticisms of the Conservative donor and deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, who will not say whether he is a UK taxpayer.
Straw said: "It is absolutely right that the people who make laws in this country should be full UK taxpayers."
Through this move, Straw will actually be disenfranchising UK taxpayers, and discriminating against a particular class. If you don't pay any tax at all, will you also be disenfranchised? That would be ironic: Labour prevents the poorest from sitting in Parliament.
This has a number of odious consequences. Through a false appeal to a collective body politic, Straw demands payment of tax as a loyalty test. Those who don't are now consigned to second class citizenship, and rendered unequal before the law. And at a practical level, this is a protectionist measure to defend 646 mediocrities from more deserving candidates who earned their wealth and took steps to keep it.
An all round fail!