I don't blame him for raising the threshold on the high bracket for income taxes.  £40k -- £24k after income taxes -- would be a fairly nice living in Nottingham, but a good chunk of the £40k+ crowd is living in and around London, I suspect, and, after taxing away 40% of it, you're not left with a whole hell of a lot to live on there.

That said, £17k/yr doesn't go very far in England, even outside of the hyper-expensive areas.  Those people shouldn't be paying more tax.

Be nice to America. Or we'll bring democracy to your country.