Nick Clegg: "Wealth Inequality Is Very Much Greater Than Income Inequality And Widening"

Cameron & Clegg, match made in hell-- at least for the British people

Yesterday some of us may have been thinking about all the snot-nosed little Republican shits who are just like Conservative Parliament Member Aidan Burley. But by this morning my mind was back in the U.K. and back into the unpopular shaky coalition government David Cameron cobbled together with the help of the very much less than trustworthy Nick Clegg of the Liberal-Democrats.

Back in May we mentioned that Clegg was struggling to figure out what to do after his party lost more than 700 council seats in a national election, a staggering rejection of the party. Distancing the Lib-Dems from Cameron's Conservatives was what his party started demanding. He started talking about the Lib-Dems' role of protecting the country from a return to the unfairness of Thatcherism. Yesterday, perhaps not for the first time, Clegg was making sure voters know that, coalition of not, his party is still different from Cameron's Conservatives-- and his message is one Obama and the Beltway Democrats would be wise to take heed of.

Nick Clegg has signalled he will make a tax on wealth a Liberal Democrat priority between now and the next election, saying it will be one way to attack the glass ceilings that allow the children of the privileged elite to be protected.

In a speech to Demos on "the open society", he said he wanted "lower taxes on work and effort" and "a greater contribution from the wealthy."

Aides said he was targeting either a mansion tax, restriction of pension tax relief or action on capital gains tax. They added the government may well need new sources of income if it is to meet its priority pledge to remove the low paid from tax.

"Wealth inequality is very much greater than income inequality, and widening," Clegg said. "The bottom third of households hold just 3% of the nation's wealth. The top third hold three-quarters of it. This inequality of wealth then cascades down the generations, potentially widening the opportunity gap."

He said greater intergenerational social mobility is the principal objective of the coalition's social policy. He underscored his commitment to take action on executive pay by giving shareholders more power. He promised a response to a consultation on executive pay next month, but one aim will be to increase the influence of investors.

He said society was at a critical, and potentially dangerous, moment-- both in the world at large and in the UK. "History teaches that, at times of deep economic uncertainty, societies become more exposed to the forces of division-- populism, insularity, separatism, an 'us versus them' mentality," he said.

"Rather than remaining open to the world and facing the future, societies can begin to turn inwards and lose confidence in progress.

"The danger in the UK is that the forces of reaction and retreat overwhelm our instinct for openness and optimism. That we succumb to fear-- the greatest enemy of openness-- in these dark economic times."

He said Britain's openness was hobbled by closed institutions and vested interests hoarding unaccountable power, wealth and influence. His targets were "media moguls, dodgy lobbyists corrupting our politics, irresponsible bankers taking us for a ride and then helping themselves to massive bonuses, boardrooms closed against the interests of shareholders and workers."

Other targets include the bar, the unelected House of Lords and party political funding. He said: "Closed societies-- opaque, hierarchical, insular-- are the sorts of society my party has opposed for over 150 years."

Austerity isn't the answer, not anywhere. I can never resist an opportunity to share this one: