Denise Coates considers her latest annual remuneration of £199m fair recognition of what she has done for her online gambling company, Bet365 (Report, 13 November). Had she been paid the current median annual salary of £27,195, then to achieve this figure she would have needed to work full time since 5300BC, in the later stone age. (By contrast Martin Sorrel would have needed to work full time for his 2015 remuneration of £70m only since 557BC, when Pythagoras was 13 years old and had not yet proved his theorem.) Denise Coates could instead improve the odds for her customers on whom her remuneration depends. Or the chancellor could restore the top rate of tax on income that applied under 12 years of Labour governments and 14 years of Conservative governments between 1945 and 1971, namely 97.5%. Then we could all gain some benefit.
David Ward
Wigton, Cumbria
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