Here’s a chart to cheer you up over Christmas – if you’re a millionaire or a politician

As our taxes go up (the Treasury plans to put tax revenue up by 30% by 2016): as prices go up (especially energy and water because of the utterly incompetent and corrupt Ofgem and Ofwat): as our politicians each claim on average £40,000 a year more in taxfree expenses than they did before the expenses scandal broke: as large companies pay no taxes (I have repeatedly explained on my blog and in an article in MoneyWeek why Corporation Tax should be scrapped and replaced by retention of some VAT): as we waste millions on the extra 117 of Cameron’s cronies who were made peers: and as our debt rockets from £700bn when the Coalition came to power to £1.4trn by the next election, you might have thought there wasn’t much to be cheerful about this Christmas. But you’d be wrong. Very wrong. If you’re a millionaire or a politician the money just keeps on rolling effortlessly in – Happy Christmas.