Must we now turn to the Tories for fairer taxes?

It has taken cack-handedness without parallel in British political history for this Labour government to be blamed by the middle class for wasting money on inefficient public services while simultaneously bringing down on its head the envy usually directed at rich Tories. Such is Gordon Brown's achievement.

I've had Left-wing friends emailing me to praise the Conservative Party - that's right, the Conservative Party - for challenging Brown with a proposal to limit the tax loophole for "non-domiciled" rich foreigners and to use the revenue to stop death duties being levied on modest families.

Phillip Gould wrote a book in the mid-1990s on how Labour had to appeal to the inhabitants of 1930s semis if it was ever to win in the south. He didn't say Labour would thank them for their support by treating them as if they were the owners of Blenheim Palace when they died.

There is a hint of foreigner bashing in the Conservatives' targeting of Russian plutocrats and Indian steel tycoons but it doesn't strike me as overly chauvinist. No country would accept a tax system which penalises the natives for being natives, and nor should Britain.

In any case, there is equal resentment on the Left about the British Bhs magnate, Philip Green, moving his fortune to Monaco so he didn't have to pay for British schools and hospitals - then being knighted by New Labour. And at Damon Buffini and Sir Ronald Cohen being granted a 10 per cent tax rate on their private equity deals, then being venerated as entrepreneurial geniuses by Brown.

Meanwhile, affluent Londoners from less Leftie quarters can't compete in the markets for property, private schools and luxury goods against under-taxed rivals. Brown says this warped system helps the economy. But no one I know in the City believes there would be a mass exodus if the rules were changed. London is one of the world's great capitals, not a tin-pot tax haven. People will not give up their seat at the top table so they can languish in the obscurity of Bermuda or Geneva. One banker told me the Government should call their bluff and say, "If you don't like Britain enough to pay your taxes, take the big road out of west London and turn off when you see the Heathrow sign."

The disquiet of many like him shows that the argument isn't about Left or Right but about fairness. It says much for our times that the Tories understand it better than a Labour government.

For Nick Cohen's full column, buy Wednesday's Evening Standard