Incoming prime minister Andy Burnham is reportedly considering bringing capital gains tax (CGT) into line with income tax - taking the rate from 24% to as much as 45%. Even Sir Tony Blair’s own institute has warned him off, and rightly so.

As someone who has spent a career advising the businesses that would bear this, in my view this is not merely a bad idea but a category error - a confusion about what an asset actually is.

Assets are not income. Income arrives whether you like it or not; a gain only exists if you choose to sell. That single difference is why equalisation fails everywhere it is tried, and why the behavioural response is so brutal.