All hail the abolition of the ‘non-doms’

One of the agreeable surprises in the Spring Budget was Jeremy Hunt’s late conversion to the idea of abolishing ‘non-dom’ status. ‘Those with the broadest shoulders,’ he said, ‘should pay their fair share.’

The non-dom loophole, where you can live here but not pay UK taxes on your overseas earnings, has long been a bugbear of the narrow-shouldered in general, and the chip-shouldered in particular. Abolishing it is, of course, a flagship Labour policy – which the Chancellor opposed for years before changing his mind and copying it.  

Jolly good. Chalk one up to the marketplace of ideas. But the broad-shouldered are not happy about it. The restaurateur Richard Caring, egg-and-chip supplier to the international plutocracy, warns the Sunday Times that the Chancellor’s change of tack will make his customers very sad. London, he says, is ‘everybody’s favourite city in the world – it’s a question of them being able to stay and not being driven out by high taxes.