Under the British tax system at the moment, people with low and middle incomes pay higher tax rates than those with high incomes. The Lib Dems first priority is to redress this imbalance and make our tax system fairer.

Although we have high tax rates for large incomes, there are plenty of loopholes, meaning that people who can afford an accountant can pay less tax than they should. The only justification for allowing inequality, as far as I am concerned, is because it indirectly benefits everyone (the technological advances of the last century would not have been possible without the market.) But, we don't need to allow this inequality to dictate such massive differences in quality of life, especially for the several million people in this country below the poverty line who pay tax. As far as I am concerned, people at the top of the quality of life distribution should pay at least their fair share, if not a bit more, than the person with median earnings. Also, the way we pay for local services is massively unjust; people shouldn't have to pay tax based on how big their family is, and therefore how large their house is. Council tax is regressive and hugely unfair.

The Lib Dems are proposing my sort of massive shift in tax policy in 2010; we would close all the loopholes in the tax system, to make sure that people on high incomes pay their fair share, and pass on the benefit by raising the threashold at which people start to pay tax to £10,000 a year. This would lift millions of people on low incomes (like some part-time workers and pensioners) out of tax altogether, and mean a £700 tax cut for millions more households with moderate incomes. I think this is the kind of social redistribution that would help people through the recession, but also be a lasting change in the way quality of life is distributed in our society.

Also, under a Lib Dem government, Council Tax would be replaced by a local income tax, stopping councils unfairly penalising large families and pensioners, and putting the emphasis back onto people's ability to pay. This would allow councils to target their rate increases so that they can raise badly needed funds without penalising some very poor people, and I think it is the only fair proposal to come out of any of the main political parties for fixing this problem.

This is a massive shift from the status quo- only the Lib Dems have the guts to propose this badly needed radicalism to make the way we pay taxes in Britain fair.