Just asking for 'redistribution' is like turning a blind eye to theft.

Watched the end of Newsnight last night, with the interview with Sir Ming Campbell. No worries there from Ming he's doing a great job, for us ;-) . But a number of the audience started asking questions about the Lib Dems abolishing of the 50p higher tax rate - they kept asking for redistribution. I think this is on the border of being morally unacceptable.

Why aren't people at least a little embarrassed about asking the state to organise theft ? ( Don't get me wrong - those who need help should get it and as a last resort - if charities can't cope then the state should be a safety net - and a large amount of tax will be needed to pay for it ). But there seems to be some sort of assumption that the money people receive should not be related to how hard they work.

I had an enjoyable evening with a few university friends last night, and one of them confirmed your worst fears about how tax money is spent by government. Most of it gets redistributed to middle class Guardian and Independent readers, through government ineptitude.

Strangely the people asking for the redistribution last night seemed to be public sector...

I wonder how many people asking for tax to increase give large amounts of their income to charity ? Would anyone give extra money of their own to the government ? ( Of course their is the stupidity tax - but then by defintion people don't know they're doing that. )

I look forward to the day when people are ashamed to just go on about redistribution, as an abstract concept.