Tagged, taxed and traduced - don't let the Cock of the North catch you with money

Here’s a warning for the Cock of the North as he prepares to impose an exit tax on rich people fleeing his Socialist regime. It’s from my book ‘The Ministry of Theft’ which is meant to be a satirical look at the near future but might just be more of a prediction than I feared:

‘As the trickle of rich people getting out of the country threatened to turn into a flood, the Government banned all known billionaires and their families from leaving.

Since the imposition of Personal ID devices, it was easy for the Ministry of Surveillance to place a tag on their digital passports which meant they were unable to pass through control barriers at any legal route out of the country. To be on the safe side, the ban affected hundreds of thousands of people who were required, for a fee, to prove their relative impoverishment before the tag was lifted.

A State of Emergency was declared. The Prime Minister insisted it was a temporary measure to prevent the country’s oligarchs from escaping the new Fairness Charge which even middle-classes with modest assets hated and called a second Wealth Tax. The travel ban extended to anyone directly or indirectly related to the named wealthy individual – even ex-wives and step-children, cousins and uncles, were affected – and, with the compliance of the National Bank, the Government was able to prevent them from removing their money even if they were not allowed to remove themselves.

Wealth tests were imposed at airports. Security checks now included demands to see three years of bank statements. Thorough searches were made to prevent the export of cash or valuables. Some people thought they could convert money into diamonds and wear them on the way out of the country but it quickly became apparent this was not only unacceptable but the jewels themselves would be confiscated as punishment for trying to circumvent the regulations.

There were other ways round the Government’s prohibitions. The most popular was through the purchase of Bitcoin and other digital currencies which soared in value as demand increased. Some pundits warned that, once the State of Emergency was over, the value of virtual-reality money would plummet. That did not end the speculation. The Government sought international agreements to prevent what it called the laundering of money via cryptocurrencies but only with modest success. To the Prime Minister’s unconcealed fury, other countries saw themselves as competitors with Britain and encouraged wealthy people to move their money to their jurisdictions by whatever means were still open to them. The drain of capital became a game of cat-and-mouse as the rich sought ever more elaborate ways to get round the ban on extracting their money and moving it somewhere safer. Accountants and lawyers got rich as a result and both groups used their skills to ensure their own earnings were, as far as possible, placed legally beyond the reach of The National Revenue and Customs.

It didn’t take long for international confidence in the financial stability of Great Britain to drain away. This provoked ever-rising rates of interest. In turn, this stalled demand for loans and mortgages, crippling the economy while the cost of servicing the Government’s own debt grew more and more unmanageable.

The blackouts grew worse.' Buy it now - while you can still afford it