From: Dick Lindley, Altofts, Normanton.

I always thought that grave robbing was a practice confined to Ancient Egypt but unfortunately I was so wrong. It is about to be practised by this Labour Government, big style.

The Budget confirmed the worst fears of many working-class farmers, that all the benefits of their hard work and frugal lifestyles are going to be stolen by this Government when those farmers are finally ensconced in their coffins, via a punitive tax, which is incorrectly called an inheritance tax, but which should in reality, be called a death tax.

Not only have these working class farmers paid their normal taxes during a lifetime of hard slog whilst feeding the nation as well, but when they are dressed in their shrouds and ready for the graveyard, this government intends to make sure that their kids will have nothing much to inherit, because, make no mistake about this, family farms will be destroyed by this punitive and vindictive tax.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves leaves 11 Downing Street, London, with her ministerial red box before delivering her Budget. PIC: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire

placeholder image — Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves leaves 11 Downing Street, London, with her ministerial red box before delivering her Budget. PIC: Jordan Pettitt/PA Wire

It is a classic socialist measure, intended, no doubt, to impoverish farmers and consequently allowing those regimes to confiscate the benefits of a lifetime of hard work on those farms, to enrich the government, rather than help the children of those farmers enjoy a better start in life.

Of course, I understand that there may be some of those in the present UK Government who idolise Karl Marx, and his hatred of private property, and those people will no doubt be delighted that this tax will ensure that the private ownership of land will finally disappear and that the state will be the sole beneficiary of that theft.