It is said that Tiberius warned his regional commanders against overtaxing the citizenry by telling them, “boni pastoris est tondere pecus non deglubere”. It is of a good shepherd to shear his flock, not to flay them.

For a number of years tax rates have been creeping up. Both direct and indirect taxes being constantly cranked higher. During the good times hardly anyone cared that the Government kept confiscating ever greater swathes of people’s income. Credit was easy, house prices did nothing but go up, the economy, thanks to financial services and an obscenely bloated civil service, appeared to be tootling along fine. But when the outlook is uncertain the public loses its tolerance for being repeatedly mugged.

Stamp duty on house purchases up to 4%. Increase in the small business corporation tax rate, totalling more than 15% staggered over three years. The non-dom tax. National Insurance rates that creep forever upwards. An 80% increase on the lowest rate of Capital Gains Tax. And most recently, the ongoing incompetence that is the abolition of the 10% tax rate.

As with everything political, persecution by tax is initially on those who are seen as more fortunate. Picking on a minority group is fine, just as long as it is on status and not race. They are buying a bigger house than you, we’ll charge them four times the rate of stamp duty you pay. They are saving for their retirement, let’s rape their pension funds of £5bn+ a year. They have a bigger car than you, we’ll tax them more. Just wrap the penal tax rate in “pay their fair share” propaganda and you should be able to get away with it.

Analysis shows that, net of tax credits, the top 0.1% pay more income tax than the bottom 15% combined. They do not earn 150 times the income. If that top 0.1%, which is only 47,000 people, decided to leave there would be a big hole in the finances. The problem is there are big holes already.

The deteriorating economy, combined with profligate social spending and the escalating cost of maintaining bribes to keep key voter demographics on side, mean ever larger amounts of tax have to be drained from the populace. Result, larger groups have to be targeted. Hence the 10% tax band debacle.

The end result, many of the overtaxed are getting out. It is not only the so-called rich who are looking for the exit. Adding to the exodus is a middle-class squeezed on all sides. A tax system that persecutes single people for being single doesn’t help either. Now government proposals to tax companies on foreign profits have added many businesses to the growing list of those thinking of upping sticks.

The future does not look good. The secular trend is one of rising taxes across the board. Those being driven abroad by the Government’s ever more oppressive tax regime are net contributors to the country’s tax take. That means those who remain will find themselves having to pay a growing share of a rising tax bill.

Never mind being flayed, tax paying Britons prepare to be kebabbed.