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Farmer Took Own Life in Fear of Inheritance Tax Raid, Says Son

by Will Jones
5 November 2024 7:30 PM

Farmer John Charlesworth has taken his own life in fear of the Government’s inheritance tax raid, his son has said. The Telegraph has more.

John Charlesworth, 78, was found dead at his 70-acre farm in Barnsley, Yorkshire, on Tuesday, 24 hours before the Budget.

His son Jonathan, 46, said the father-of-two ended his life after being “eaten away” at the prospect of his family losing the £2 million estate, which has been owned by the family since 1957, because of the Chancellor’s tax increase.

He told the Telegraph that hearing in advance of the Budget about Labour’s plans to end the practice of letting all farmers pass on estates without inheritance tax was the “final straw” for Mr. Charlesworth, who had been caring for his sick wife.

In a message to Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, he said: “I would tell them they’ve killed my Dad. He didn’t know the details but all the scaremongering around it beforehand frightened him to death.

“He was the most kind-hearted person you’d ever meet, my Dad. He wouldn’t take any nonsense. He would do anything for anybody, I don’t think anyone had a bad word to say about my Dad.

“The battles we had guided me for the future. You couldn’t ask for better really.”

Last week, Ms. Reeves used her Budget to place a 20% tax on agricultural property assets worth more than £1 million, instead of allowing them to be inherited tax-free.

Ms. Reeves said the move was taken to stop wealthy people from buying up agricultural land to avoid inheritance tax but it has led to fears that scores of ordinary farmers could be forced out of business.

Concerns have also been raised about the impact the policy will have on farmers’ mental health.

Speaking in the Commons on Friday, Richard Tice, the Reform U.K. Deputy Leader, shared concerns that “heads of farming families in their 80s and 90s are seriously considering committing suicide before this policy comes into place”.

Worth reading in full.

Stop Press: Labour’s inheritance tax changes may mean more agricultural land becomes available for renewable energy projects across the U.K., renewable energy expert Gareth Phillips has said.

Tags: BudgetFarmingInheritance TaxLabourRachel Reeves

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16 Comments
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GLT
GLT
4 years ago

What a fantastic essay. Many thanks.

20
0
ANDY MANSELL
ANDY MANSELL
4 years ago
Reply to  GLT

Absolutely. Sums up modern life in general for me.

3
0
Barney McGrew
Barney McGrew
4 years ago

A brilliant article. Many thanks.

11
0
Anton
Anton
4 years ago

Superb. And timely.

12
0
Mike May
Mike May
4 years ago

The latter part of that final paragraph – poetry!

As for the Thursday evening clap-for-key-workers ceremony I doubt I’m the only one eerily minded of Orwell’s two-minutes’ hate from 1984.

25
0
ANDY MANSELL
ANDY MANSELL
4 years ago
Reply to  Mike May

I’ll be honest- I take part. Originally, I thought it a nice idea, but as it dragged on and it became apparent that there were some people clearly watching to see who was and was not complying it started to feel a little creepy and not a little like an episode from ‘The Prisoner’- especially in a small village. I now take part to save my family from being declared ‘unmutual’…

3
0
Bertie Fox
Bertie Fox
4 years ago

Wonderful article! Thank you!!

8
0
rodmclaughlin
rodmclaughlin
4 years ago

Brilliant. Far-ranging analysis of modern society which goes way beyond just a critique of the lockdown.

10
0
Tom
Tom
4 years ago

The emphasis that the government – or, perhaps better, the state – places on citizens’ emotions and perceptions is a hallmark of dystopian societies: in “1984” Winston must not merely say that 2 + 2 = 5, but actually believe it; in Zamyatin’s “We” the state surgically removes the imagination from the population to reduce them to mere functionaries; and in “Brave New World” people are relentlessly conditioned to identify with the state: “everyone’s happy now”. This of course goes hand-in-hand with our new-found love of censorship – “dangerous” is the new “degenerate” – and the constant appeal to security. The principle of individual autonomy – probably the defining idea of the West – is apparently now the greatest threat. Thanks for the article.

14
0
Hieronimusb
Hieronimusb
4 years ago

A good essay which eloquently deconstructs the message but fails to name the ‘science’ behind it: Applied Behavioural Psychology (see Edward Bernays et al). Call it spin, call it what you like, governments have been ramping up their use of it for decades and it is now an insidious virus with far more potential for harm than SARS-COV-2.

15
0
Jacqueline Johnstone
Jacqueline Johnstone
4 years ago
Reply to  Hieronimusb

Susan Michie of Sage, Boris Johnson’s new BF advisor, is one of those (Applied Behavioural Psychologist). An avowed communist to boot. Lordy, Lordy.

1
0
Dene Bebbington
Dene Bebbington
4 years ago

Emotion and fear (whether because of a supposed internal or external threat) have always been two of the many tools of government.

4
0
Dene Bebbington
Dene Bebbington
4 years ago

This quote from Fahrenheit 451 is pretty apt:

“But you can’t make people listen. They have to come round in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them.” 

I think a lot of the lockdown supporters have yet to really understand the extent to which the world blew up around them: the avoidable non-Covid deaths and the massive economic damage which means we’re probably in for another 10 years of so-called “austerity”.

10
0
djc
djc
4 years ago
Reply to  Dene Bebbington

“Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, Charles Mackay, 1852

8
0
Rachel
Rachel
4 years ago
Reply to  Dene Bebbington

Been speculating they’ll start waking up when they visit Walmart and can’t find their favorite coffee brand on the shelves. “Oh no! Who ever thought economic devastation could disrupt my creaturely comforts while staying home forever.” Or the coffee will be there and suddenly cost $30 a canister instead of $2.50.

1
0
Julian
Julian
4 years ago

Spot on. The PM is at it again in the Mail on Sunday today, saying he understands our “frustration”. In other news, Spain has said it is planning “one last extension” of the emergency decree imposing restrictions, before “most of the country” returns to normality in June. Note how they need to explicitly extend it, in contrast to ours that is more or less open ended (ministers I believe can extend the Coronavirus Act) and how there is no mention of “new normal” (though I have to admit I don’t follow Spanish news closely so I may simply be ignorant of this). Who would have thought a country that has seen a long running fascist dictatorship in living memory would make our government look like sinister despots. I am placing my hope in two things: The strong drive of the British people to go to the pub and to want to make babies, and the strong drive of the government to look like it knows what it is doing when we are the only country in Europe living a “new normal” and the sky has not fallen in for them.

7
0
Rachel
Rachel
4 years ago

The Nanny State has Munchausen’s by Proxy.
Almost as bad across the pond.
Things will change (probably not for the better) come November.

0
0
Melanie Oxbrow
Melanie Oxbrow
4 years ago

Great! Thanks so much for this. If only it could be headline news instead of the lies and scaremongering that has become ‘normal’! Everyone needs to know this.

1
0

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