Covid and Brexit: Super-rich should bear the lion's share of paying off the costs of both – Helen Martin

We also know Brexit is going to cause more financial loss and a lack of security, but to what degree?

For older people, a lower economy sometimes doesn’t seem as threatening. We all remember a time when most people didn’t have fridges or washing machines and very few had cars. Our local bus fare ranged from one-and-a-half old pennies to threepence.

Public phone boxes were everywhere because only a few had landline phones, and several of them had a ”party line” shared with another household.

My primary school class ranged from those in middle-class to others in poverty, something we didn’t notice at the time because we were all pals.

At about seven years old, my Christmas present from Santa was an encyclopaedia and a pomegranate! The most expensive luxury I had at the time was horse riding lessons (8/6d for an hour lesson and 7/6d for a hack) which in today’s decimal count would be 42.5p and 37.5p!

The problem, of course, is that the world has changed so much, we can’t just cut back to paying for home and food. Survival means lots of spending dosh.

Everyone needs expensive, essential goods including mobile phones, a PC, laptop or tablet, a scanner and printer, broadband, fridge and freezer, washing machine, and electric or gas heating rather than wood or coal fires.

Public transport is expensive and a decent bike for commuting and cycling in cities is from about £500 to £1000.

Without Covid-19, at least one holiday abroad, or three, are now considered normal for families, and kids are likely to get a couple of hundred pounds of Christmas gifts. They need mobile phones, and laptops too for homework.

House prices and rentals are higher than ever, and both parents have to work, so childcare is a dear necessity.

Countries and cities are expecting to raise income tax and council tax from workers to restore national and local authority income but, apart from giving up holidays and spoiling kids, how can average people, other than highly paid professionals, afford that? Even working people today are relying on food banks and school meals during term holidays.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs have already been lost in the UK since March because of Covid-19 with more destined to go in this second wave. We’re facing a poorer population in a more expensive world with plummeting income in most countries.

The most obvious solution is to charge millionaires and billionaires full, legitimate taxation and make tax havens illegal. Countries can be reimbursed from that and people who are struggling can be supported rather than hit with more tax.

Part of that was the EU plan which, as I believe, was the Tory government’s main Brexit goal, to keep Britain’s tax havens, including Bermuda, Cayman Islands, Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and more, going strong. Hence no-deal is an acceptable exit.

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