Livingstone proposes tax on taking more than one foreign holiday a year

Ken Livingstone has taken a break from campaigning for the independent candidate for Mayor of Tower Hamlets. (Polling is today and I'm sure any help for the Conservative candidate Neil King would be appreciated if you ar at  loose end. Contact details on his website.)

Anyway as mentioned Livingstone took some time off. He has visited Malta but it hasn't been a pure holiday - that would have meant him having to pay for it. Instead he has fitted in a speech to a travel convention.

In the speech his message was:

On outbound tourism he would like to see a tax imposed after the first holiday of the year.

I suppose it would be all right for him where he goes on freebies that he can classify as work. But for many Londoners it would come as a blow. Some of the self employed do not find it viable to go on one long holiday but only short breaks.

What about those with relatives living abroad? Does Livingstone not realise that London is a cosmopolitan city? In his constant enthusiasm to think up new taxes he has forgotten that it would have an unfair impact on them. Send that man on a diversity awareness course.

What about requiring any proposed tax hike to be subject to an Equalities Impact Assessment? His Council Tax surcharges as Mayor of London would certainly have failed the test given the disproportionate way Council Tax hits the poor.