Credit Crunch

The radical measures "necessary" to deal with the debt crisis is a smoke screen being used by the Tories to introduce Tory policies that might otherwise would meet with greater opposition. The measures are designed to increase unemployment and reduce or eliminate services on which the poor and the unemployed depend (see Matt Nicholson, Guardian letters, June 9).

If there really is a crisis the solution is simple - a one-off wealth tax of a quarter of one percent on world wide assets. The assets should be seized on the same basis as that used in connection with suspected profits from drug trading - the cash is first appropriated and it is then up to the appellant to prove that, in this instance, he does not control or benefit in any way from assets stashed away in overseas banks, company accounts or any other quasi-legal devices thought up by tax avoidance accountants. There could then be further reductions or penalties for those who pay up promptly or that prevaricate