Tax needn't be taxing, the advert simpers, and while that might be true, coughing up your hard-earned will never be anything less than grievously unpleasant. Yet hearing Adele complain about being taxed on the great tidal wave of cash generated by her multi-million selling albums, it's hard to feel much sympathy.
Speaking to Q magazine, the Rolling in the Deep singer said, "I'm mortified to have to pay 50%! [While] I use the NHS, I can't use public transport any more. Trains are always late, most state schools are shit, and I've gotta give you, like, four million quid – are you having a laugh? When I got my tax bill in from [the album] 19, I was ready to go and buy a gun and randomly open fire."
Now, I love Adele. But that doesn't exactly endear you to her, does it? Let's look at it again.
"I'm mortified to have to pay 50%!" The Beatles had to pay 95% - as did all the highest earners under two successive governments (Wilson and Heath) in the mid-60s. George Harrison wrote a song about it, can't remember what it's called, sorry.
"I use the NHS." Keep paying your taxes then or it'll be gone.
"I can't use public transport any more." The rest of us plebs still have to. Adele, however, will never be short of the sponds for a private car to Shoreditch House from now until the end of time.
"Trains are always late." What does that matter when you don't use them? And they're not anyway.
"Most state schools are shit." Actually, according to the most recent Ofsted report for the UK, "Just over two thirds of schools at their most recent inspection were providing a good or better education for their pupils. Pupils' behaviour was good or outstanding in 86% of schools." Of course, if rich people stop paying their taxes then they will become shit.
"When I got my tax bill in, I was ready to go and buy a gun and randomly open fire." Now, you have to assume this was a joke rather than the first bitter taste of a full-blown psychotic episode, but it's still upsetting to hear this musician I admire seems as greedy as the most moat-friendly, port-stained Tory grandee.
