In 1966, the Beatles released a song called ‘Taxman’, which starts with the lines:

Let me tell you how it will be

That’s one for you, 19 for me…

Should 5 percent appear too small,

Be thankful I don’t take it all.

The lyrics were written in protest against excessive taxation in the UK, which up until the 1970s was tantamount to expropriating high-earning individuals, with an income tax rate of 83 percent for those in the highest bracket, while capital gains were taxed at up to 98 percent.

In the UK, the victory of the left-wing Labour Party in the 1945 general elections had led to the implementation of a form of democratic socialism under the then prime minister Clement Attlee, at the core of which was a massive program of nationalization. Once banks, civil aviation, and the mining and telecommunications industries had been nationalized, the railways, shipping canals, road freight transport, power and gas soon followed, as did manufacturing industries including iron and steel.

Even after the Conservative Party returned to power after the general elections in October 1951, the new........

© Townhall