And yet only an average £16.1k in income tax per tax payer. There must be a fair bit of disparity there, that or Elton John and Jensen Button have much more effective accountants than I do, which isn't unlikely I suppose.

"John O'Reilly, the Tory leader of Elmbridge Council, said: 'This is a good community, a diverse community..."

Diverse as in having doctors, lawyers and bankers?

Yes.

Incidentally I've been a regular business visitor to Stoke on Trent for the last year or so. Frankly I'm not surprised it pays so little tax. The town is terribly down at heel and there's almost no industry left to speak of. Even mighty Wedgwood employs less than 800 people, and that is pretty much all that is left of the once mighty potteries.

Callcentres have taken over, the rest of us either work out of town or claim benefits. I'm typing this from Manchester.

The poor are disproportionally impacted by consumption taxes which have risen steeply since 2007.

And something for 2013: [url]http://paullewismoney.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/universal-credit-83-tax-rate-for-some.html[url]

I live in one of these Labour heartlands and you're right the benefit generation is burgeoning. But don't forget that among the North's indigenous layabouts and problem families the north also seems to be a receptacle for st from the rest of the UK.

I don't have figures but I do have seen this happens a lot in Teesside and I think that Blackpool is a well documented case of what happens to a town when you just drop life's losers into one big sink and thing some magic plucky northerner gene will be awoken.

Because the point of the article is their high tax rate. You have provided 0 evidence so far to show the rich pay a greater proportion of their income on tax than the poor.

This.

Live in the midlands. We still make things here.

The majority of people who work regardless of where will graft. I think this whole southerners work harder is bullst, we all work just as hard when we have the ethic. Im sure that feckless jobless people around the UK are just as bad.