It will certainly create issues for Scotland. It will be interesting to see how that progresses. The Scottish Government like to consider themselves to be practising a radical, even left-wing, form of politics. It will be interesting to see what they do with the powers they get. They are trying to be all things to all people. At the same time that they say they are going to be an extremely left-wing Government, they say they are going to be a tax-cutting Government. It will be interesting to know how they will square that circle. We will find out soon, given their attitude to stamp duty.

Our position is that there is a merit in property taxation, and there is a merit in looking at high-value properties. The Government have conceded that the taxation system should be fair; that was the thrust of the steps they took in Budget 2012. They reassured voters when they changed the income tax rate that more money would be secured from the better off through this other mechanism than would be secured through income taxation. They accepted that there was a good argument for having a progressive, fair tax system. On that basis, they set out a clear argument for a tax on high-value properties, whether we call it a mansion tax or something else.

The incredible level of house prices—high-value properties have been snapped up all over London—has an impact further down the food chain. Most of the population would never in their dreams—short of a major lottery win—be in the market for that kind of property. But property pages in the past few months have been full of stories about how much property prices are increasing again, particularly in the capital and at the high-value end. That suggests that there is a lot of wealth around; people have not been leaving the  country because of the 50p tax rate, but have been flowing into the country for all sorts of other reasons. One reason might be that they think it is attractive to buy property in this country because we do not tax it heavily.