Andrew Lloyd Webber:  The Last Thing This Country Needs Is a Pirate Raid on the Wealth Creators Who Still Dare Navigate Our Stormy Waters (The Daily Mail):

The opinion polls have uttered. The country loves the new 50% top rate of income tax. Soak the rich. Smash the bankers. So Government spin doctors are in second heaven. The Conservatives’ silence redefines a tomb. And I suppose there’d be quite a turnout for the public flogging of Sir Fred the Shred.

But before you book your tickets, hold hard. And before you lynch me as a rich b*****d flying a kite for my own cause, let me beg you to believe that I am not.

I believe that this new top rate of tax could be the final nail in the coffin of Britain plc.

I am 61 years old. I have lived and worked in Britain all my life. Not even in the dark days of penal Labour taxation in the Seventies did I have any intention of leaving the country of my birth.

Despite a rumour put around some years back, I have never contemplated leaving Britain for tax reasons. But in the 40-plus years I have been lucky enough to work here, I’ve seen a bit. So I must draw your attention to what is really proposed in this Budget.

Here’s the truth. The proposed top rate of income tax is not 50 per cent. It is 50% plus 1.5% national insurance paid by employees plus 13.3% paid by employers. That’s not 50%. Two years from now, Britain will have the highest tax rate on earned income of any developed country.

(Hat Tip: Andy Morriss.)