Lord True attacks Mansion Tax

In a letter to the Evening  Standard (not online) on Wednesday, the Conservative leader of Richmond-upon-Thames Council, Lord True, says that the Business Secretary Vince Cable is "flogging his so-called 'Mansion Tax' and higher rate council tax like a telephone cold caller on commission."

He says:

Richmond has frozen council tax again and reduced taxation on parking in high streets. Dr Cable's new taxes would be a body blow to thousands of households in our borough, bearing down heavily on people who have lived for a long time in well loved homes while property prices soared. And no one should kid themselves that a future Chancellor wouldn't lower the threshold to hit more Londoners.

Both taxes would also both be snoopers charters, with thousands of inspectors demanding entry to private homes or else undertaking secret surveillance. Not long ago we stood shoulder to shoulder with the Lib Dems fighting Tony Blair's inroads into civil liberties. How ironic to see London's Lib Dems now push intrusive policies that would cost the country millions in pointless computers, secret databases, bureaucracy and litigation.

Cable has a majority of over 12,000 in Twickenham. But is he taking his constituents for granted is demanding an illiberal policy that would penalise many of them?