The wisdom of pitchfork-wielding crowds

In a way the headline to my fellow columnist Dominic Lawson’s Sunday Times commentary on 12 April said it all. ‘Join the pitchfork wavers on tax, Mr Cameron, and you end up skewered.’ The column had something of an 18th-century ring to it, conjuring in my mind’s eye an elegant London dinner party, with men-about-town in powdered wigs twitching back the heavy damask curtains to sneak worried glances at a riot outside: an unruly and enraged mob rampaging up the street.

But Dominic had a powerful argument. It was, he suggested, noblemen like David Cameron and George Osborne who had unwittingly energised the rabble. Dominic had warned his readers of this four years ago, when the Prime Minister and Chancellor had trumpeted their moral repugnance at the comedian Jimmy Carr’s use of a legally approved scheme to minimise tax. I don’t myself think there is moral equivalence between Mr Carr’s elaborate arrangements and Mr Cameron’s father’s use of a common and straightforward investment vehicle, but Dominic’s point was that if you encourage people to ask not only ‘Is it legal?’ but ‘Is it moral?’, you’re on a slippery slope.