The most expensive house in Britain has been sold for £139m1
£139m is a figure which is very difficult to understand for ordinary people. So! This translation might help.
£139,000,000 divided by a thousand pounds per day is 13,900 days
13,900 days is 38.08 years
The most expensive house in Britain was sold for the equivalent of you spending a £1000 a day for 38 years.
This is a reason for a wealth tax, which might not be the worst idea in the political world.
Note
“My children won’t even eat chips because some know-all bastard at school told them a potato was a vegetable.”
Authors who create wonderful characters own a gold mine.1 Killing a ‘Golden Goose’ is very expensive. Lee Child outsourced the Reacher series to his brother. Ian Ranken’s Rebus recently was imprisoned for murder and then solved a murder and lives on. Reacher and Rebus live forever!
Martin Cruz Smith’s eleventh Arkady Renko bucks the trend. This is the last one
Smith gives him a wonderful send-off. Renko carefully conceals his Parkinson’s disease knowing that if it’s discovered he’d have to retire. The book is set in the present. The Ukraine war is corroding Russian society with the well-connected evading wartime service. Russian gangsterism is rampant and permeates the armed forces. The war is savage and Smith blames gangsters who are present at all levels of government.
The murder of a government official leads to a quasi-official gangster organisation, and a member of the elite FSB collaborating.2 They are plotting against Putin whilst being shock-troops for the army.
Arkady Renko triumphs and bows out FOR EVER!
Definitely worth reading.
Notes
1 The first Reacher novel came out in 1997; the first Rebus novel came out in 1987. Cruz’s Arkady Renko novels began in 1981 – 44 years ago!
2 FSB is the successor to the KGB
“Police have arrested a 75-year-old man in connection with the death of 65-year-old dog walker who was shot dead on a countryside track…..
Police Scotland had initially believed that Low’s death was non-suspicious and medically related, but a medical examination six days after his body was discovered established that he had injuries consistent with being fatally shot.” [my emphasis]
Source: The Guardian 25th May 2024 p32
“I have good and bad news.”
“What’s the bad news?”
“The bad news is, your blood is all over the crime scene, and DNA tests prove you’re guilty.”
“What’s the good news?”
“Your cholesterol is 130.”
The problem: There are 8,096 people on the active transplant waiting list.1
The solution: There were 568,613 deaths, who were potential donors, in Britain in 2024.2
Discussion
There is a tragic mis-match between people needing transplants and supply. Transplants are the difference between gruelling treatment and an active life. This is ‘market failure’. The current system is failing and should be changed. The difficulty is that many people feel revulsion at the idea of their body being used for strangers. Economists pivot towards incentives.
The current British strategy is altruism, which is the, willingness to do things that bring advantages to others, even if it results in disadvantage for yourself.3 British organ donation is voluntary and motivated by a desire to do good even after death. The system is creaking. Desperately ill people are waiting a long time for donations to become available and some die whilst waiting. A modification of the altruistic system is necessary to overcome the problem of revulsion. Incentives, however, must be calibrated to add to and not replace altruism to improve the supply of organs.
A cash incentive is the normal route. It should be remembered that funeral expenses are considerable.4 An incentive could link organ donation and funeral costs. Obviously this is a lottery because only some people would be called upon to donate their organs. There is a massive excess of deaths annually compared to ‘only’ eight thousand on the active transplant list. Being a potential donor wouldn’t guarantee your funeral expenses being met. Perhaps a further incentive is needed like paying an access fee for being willing?
The fact of lengthening active waiting lists is indicative of market failure. Incentives that are attractive could induce the sale of organs. Many people might find this unacceptable as it involves monetising the organs of the body during life.
Those who are poorer may be more inclined to put their kidneys up for sale.5
So what?
Why is there a difference in acceptability between organ donation post-mortem and pre-mortem? A poor person monetising their body is funding a present need with an opportunity?6 It does , however, feel wrong for rich people using poverty to enhance their life. It feels ghoulish. The disparity of economic power might be coercion.
Waiting for an organ transplant is gruelling and destructive of life’s pleasures. Kidney dialysis sessions are unpleasant.
Each session takes around 4 hours. Most people need 3 sessions a week.7 There are about 30,000 UK citizens on dialysis machines.8
The cost of dialysis transplant and machine treatment for the NHS is about £660m pa. The NHS is clear about the cost-benefit advantages of transplants versus dialysis,
When the transplant is stable it costs about £2000 per person per year vs about £20,000 for dialysis – i.e. about 10% of the cost. The quality of life with a transplant is a lot better as well. So, if you are suitable, try very hard to have one.9
Using the concept ‘market failure’ for life-and-deathillnesses is brutal. Unfortunately, evading the decision-making process by being squeamish is delusional. Something must be done to alleviate suffering and use NHS’s resources in the best possible way for the maximum number of people.
Notes
2 Death registration summary statistics, England and Wales: 2024 – GOV.UK
3 ALTRUISM | English meaning – Cambridge Dictionary see also NHS Organ Donor Register – NHS Organ Donation
4 Pre-paid Funeral Plans – Pre-arranged funerals – Co-op Funeralcare Medals could be used as a public acknowledgement of altruistic behaviour.
5 Susskind, Richard; Susskind, Daniel. The Future of the Professions: How Technology Will Transform the Work of Human Experts (pp. 241-242).
6 Suicide Act 1961 – Wikipedia This act decriminalised the act of suicide but it also but extension gave the citizen the right of their actions towards their body. By extension the monetisation of the body by selling body parts is legal even if distasteful.
8 Dialysis for kidney failure: evidence to improve care
9 loc.cit
It’s crazy that a government could sponsor tax avoidance but the British do precisely that. Nearly a trillion pounds is shielded from taxation. This policy has incentivised those with disposable incomes to exploit what has become a bonanza. A unique millionaire class of 12,782, has been created. They’re beneficiaries of state sponsored tax avoidance. This is paid for in alternative taxation, which further distorts the economy. Hundreds of thousands of people have substantial tax-free capital in a sub-millionaire class.
Premium Bonds have a capital value of £133.1bn,1 with 21m voters (investors). 532 people have won £1m tax-free.2 The October 2025 prize money was, “…worth over £399 million”3 American lottery winners are taxed at 24% but let’s assume a 20% British tax rate. This implies £79.8m of taxation per month, which the Chancellor loses. Or, about a billion pa.
The tax loss for Premium Bonds is trivial compared to Individual Savings Accounts (ISA).
“The key attraction to an ISA is that there is no tax to be paid or, in the case of a ‘stocks and shares’ ISA, no capital gains tax either. (my emphasis)
There is an enormous amount of money invested in ISA accounts, “Around £726bn is held in ISA accounts across the UK, with the majority in stocks and shares….Across the UK, 22.3 million adults hold an ISA…”4
In 2024-5 the FTSE gained 14%, which is the benchmark for the ISA investor.5 In 2024-5 there was £100bn in capital gains – tax free. Capital Gains Tax (CGT), when payable,is 20% and the £20bn is, therefore, tax free. ISA investors have been gifted £20bn in CGT avoidance.
Dividend income is the engine room of capital growth. The FTSE’s yield is 3.15%, which equals £25.4bn annually. This provides immediate compounding through reinvestment.6 ISA voters (investors) increased their investment by 17.1% during October 2024-25. This far outstrips any taxed savings investment.
Unsurprisingly there are ISA millionaires. “…..the ISA millionaire count jumped from 4,070 in 2023 to 4,850 in 2024. And looking at the top 25 ISA accounts revealed an average value of £8.9m.”7(my emphasis)
This fiscal suicide extends to all lotteries.9 The biggest is the National Lottery. The National Lottery is a business where the profits, after expenses, are distributed to ‘good causes’.10 Yet “The National Lottery is operated under Licence from the Gambling Commission.”11 Taxation on gambling is 15%.12 The lottery paid out £4bn in 2024 in prize money, which is £600m in lost taxation. About 20m people (voters) gamble on the National Lottery each year. This is probably an under-estimate because of the number of syndicates involved. 7,400 millionaires have been created by the National Lottery, with a further seven added each week.13
A bold Chancellor desperately wanting revenue, without touching the Big Three – Income Tax, National Insurance or VAT – might consider the status of ISAs, the National Lottery and Premium Bonds.
On the other hand, political calculation might trump trivialities like fiscal sanity.
The Scorecard
ISAs: 22.3 million voters8……………….£726bn………..Tax lost (about) £42bn
National Lottery: 20 million voters…..£7bn…………..Tax lost (about) £600m
Premium Bonds: 21 million voters……£133.1bn…….Tax lost (about) £1bn
Notes
1 Detailed Stats – Investing in Premium Bonds see this for details on how the prize fund is distributed How we share out Premium Bonds prizes
2 premium bond millionaires in total numbers – Search
3 £1 million jackpot win for two Premium Bonds holders from North East Scotland and Greater Manchester | NS&I Corporate Site see also EuroMillions Tax: How Winnings Are Taxed by Country
4 ISAs unpacked: who holds them and how much do they have? | AJ Bell
5 Tracker Funds are very popular with ISA investors as it takes the pain out of decision-making and therefore 14% is realistic.
6 ftse dividend yield table – Search The more proletarian Premium Bonds do not permit compounding and so the £50,000 cannot be exceeded.
8 Voters = investing public
9 Do You Pay Tax On Prize Money? | A Comprehensive Guide
10 National Lottery Distribution Fund Annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 March 2025
11 loc.cit p2
12 General Betting Duty, Pool Betting Duty and Remote Gaming Duty – GOV.UK 13 The Millionaire Map | Winners and Good Causes | The National Lottery
An international toe wrestling competition returned to Derbyshire….The World Toe Wrestling Championship took place at the Bentley Brook Inn in Fenny Bentley, with prize money increasing to £5,000….for the men’s and women’s winners. Defending three-time champion….had his toenails surgically removed to “aid dexterity and toe stamina”. “You have to make sacrifices to be great in sport.”
Source: The New Statesman 12th September 2025 This England p56
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