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16 November 2006 Edition

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Media View

Stamp duty and the Sindo

According to the Sunday Independent, this weekend will see Fianna Fáil ministers finally "tackle the stamp duty issue".  The government, apparently, is "left with no choice" after a "Sunday Independent telephone poll showed 73% of respondents want some adjustment of stamp duty in the budget next month."

Isn't it amazing that no other publication has picked up on this mood of popular discontent?  Nearly as amazing as the "fact" that Sunday Independent telephone polls always show massive majorities in favour of Sunday Independent opinions.

Writing in last week's Village, Chekov Feeney pointed out that the Independent group began its campaign on stamp duty back last summer, when the reliable conservative hack Alan Ruddock denounced the tax.

It's worth noting that stamp duty is 'progressive' - in so far as the more the property is valued the higher is the rate of tax. It bears most heavily, therefore, on the richest - and that's something up with which Tony O'Reilly (Sir Anthony to his minions) will not put up with!

Anyway, Feeney pointed out how the Independent group have repeatedly raised this issue and presented it as one that is exercising a troubled electorate.

True to form, then, last Sunday's edition saw a veritable Trinity of hacks -- father Jody Corcoran, son Jerome O'Reilly and holy ghost Barry Egan - gang up to tell Fianna Fáil what's on the agenda of their parliamentary party pre-budget meeting after the publication of the estimates this week.

Amazing really that Finance Minister Brian Cowen doesn't 'know' that stamp duty is "top of the agenda"?  Or could it be that the Sindo has made it up?

However, the dynamic trio breathlessly told us that "one informed source" - could it be the editor? - had said that an adjustment could not be ruled out.

There are usually some changes to the stamp duty limits in a budget, because of inflation and other changes in market prices, but Cowen has specifically ruled out a major change in this area, in which view he was backed up the PDs' Michael McDowell who, supposedly, is demanding change.

Indeed, the Sunday before last, the Sindo authoritatively informed us that "the Progressive Democrats have this weekend dramatically increased pressure on government partners Fianna Fáil to ease the escalating burden of stamp duty on house-buyers. For the first time, the party has called for specific measures to be taken in next month's Budget and added that opposition to the move within the Department of Finance should be resisted."

This statement was so out of touch with reality that McDowell was forced to deny it.

Did the Sindo retract its story?  Not a bit of it.  Jody Corcoran last Sunday appended a comment that the Sindo story had been "completely accurate" and that McDowell had suffered a moment of madness in denying the story that had put the house market into a tailspin.

What's shocking about this is that none of the highly paid property and financial journalists employed by other papers noticed this tailspin at all.   Do they not read the Sindo?

And why do the Sindo want this change so badly?  Well, as Feeney points out, if there's spare cash going, the last thing that Sir Anthony wants is that ordinary working people should get any of it.  He wants to keep it for his friends, so expect more shocking revelations on the stamp duty front until, and indeed possibly after, the budget.

 

 

One man's hero is often another man's villain.  I was reminded of this truism when reading the Belfast Telegraph this week.  Inside it carried the wise remarks of that 'Irish' British Army colonel, Tim Collins.

Collins is presented a bit like a decent soldier, one who has sympathy for the underdog and even the under-nations and other sub-human species like the Irish and the Iraqis.

And what is Collins' contribution to modern enlightened thought?  Well, the 'Tele' sympathetically told us that the good colonel wants "terrorists to face the death penalty".  None of that wishy-washy Blairite softiness for him.

Tim is a real man: a man's man, and the Tele was quite right to describe him as a hero.  After all isn't he the man who refused to kill Iraqis in cold blood?  Well, not actually refused, but he did say he didn't like it.  And we all know that inflicting pain on prisoners isn't torture in the British definition so long as you don't enjoy it.  And poor Tim, apparently, didn't enjoy killing Iraqis.

But hanging them?  Ah, that's a different matter.  It's so much more civilised!

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