‘We need to tax the rich, not the working class’

Big Issue readers respond to Gary Stevenson’s editorial takeover of Big Issue, especially his views on a potential wealth tax.

Responses to: Gary Stevenson’s editorial takeover

He is absolutely accurate on his analysis. We need to be bold, creative and stop being cautious, we need to tax the rich (in particular, the ultra-rich) not the middle class or working class. 

@aristodious 

Brilliant collaboration! The revolution is getting louder, wider and cannot be ignored for much longer.

Having led support of mental health over the past seven years in one of the most deprived areas in the UK with one of the highest suicide rates, the most heartbreaking thing of all is knowing that if we get the money in the right hands, it will go a damn sight further in supporting grassroots than those orgs led by fat cats who only give a shit about holding on to their own wealth. 

@iamsharonnelson 

The avengers of wealth inequality have assembled. 

@mirhasibullahzia 

Working people shouldn’t pay taxes again until we can recover equilibrium from properly taxing the rich. 

@thomas_hjr 

I’m so very proud of you and your cohorts. Let’s get Burnham on board! 

@pandahoneywell, Instagram 

A wealth tax isn’t practical. We can tax wealth by other means. Multiple small measures instead of one impractical grand gesture. Start with equalisation of capital gains and the higher rate of income tax. 

@mygardenstory2026 

Let’s start with the closure of legal tax avoidance schemes called tax loopholes that would bring over £130 billion per year into the UK economy. 

Andrew Bromley, Facebook 

Gary needs to make it clearer about who are rich. Some people think they are rich because they have a few million. Nowadays that’s not rich. He should always use the term ULTRA wealthy. 

Gordon Fricker, Facebook 

Always think these slogans are easy to say but much more difficult to implement in the real world. 

Matthew Bloomfield, Facebook 

Ah an envy tax all because we have a government who are out of control on spending, so the solution is to steal
more money rather than reduce spend. 

Martin Hall, Facebook 

Wealth taxes don’t work. They’ve been tried many times, most recently in New York, where they were abandoned. What happens every time is that the wealthy take their money (and their taxes) elsewhere, leaving a huge hole in the finances which has to be filled by taxing ordinary people even more. 

Dick Budgen, Facebook 

@DickBudgen Err, hasn’t Mamdani just done that and balanced the states books in less than a year? 

Andrew Dean, Facebook

Inequality has always existed. It’s just that the disproportionate wealth is more transparent now and they’re in our faces with their space rockets. It’s also changed hands from the traditional wealth holders. 

Olympia McEwan, Facebook 

Read more:

• The Sunday Times Rich List is back. Is it time for a wealth tax?
• Why Britain’s next prime minister must tax billionaire wealth now. Democracy is on the line
• Brits overwhelmingly back a wealth tax on the ultra-rich. Would it work in the UK?

Slow off the mark 

Regarding Keir Starmer’s legacy on poverty, while he did remove the cruel two-child benefit cap he kept it in place for the first year of his premiership unnecessarily, keeping families and children in poverty for 12 further months. Some legacy! 

Robert Courtney, Erith 

Same same 

Your reader Christopher Richardson wrote that the EU is “always the same: corruption, nepotism, illegality and waste on an eye-watering scale”. He then mentions tax-free salaries. How different is this to our Royal Family? 

Martin Lowe, Berwick-upon-Tweed  

Bee specific

The bee featured on the front cover of issue 1723 I think is a great yellow bumblebee. The species that humans have induced over the ages to live in hives and that produce the honey we eat is the honeybee. They produce and store honey to feed to their offspring, while most other species don’t make honey: instead they feed them on nectar and pollen, so in that respect honeybees are rare. They are also smaller and much duller.  

The UK has over 250 species of wild bees. All are pollinators. Many live in colonies but most are solitary bees.  

In the UK the great yellow bumblebee is an endangered species, found only in the north of Scotland. It also breeds in a number of countries in Europe plus northern Russia and Alaska. 

Jane Olorenshaw 

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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