Peter Jackson column
May 3 2007 By Peter Jackson, The Journal
Our rich are not just getting richer, they are getting much, much richer. In fact, they are getting filthy richer.
This, at any rate, is according to the latest newspaper rich list, and I must tell you these lists should come with a health - or wealth - warning.
It is, in fact, difficult, and often impossible, to uncover somebody's true net worth, to disentangle a confused knot of trusts and nominee holdings and to be sure you have looked everywhere you should be looking.
And in my experience many rich people are keen to conceal the extent of their wealth, being understandably anxious to protect themselves from the writers of begging letters, the kidnappers of children and the officers of Her Majesty's Inland Revenue.
On the other hand, there are others, who, for reasons of vanity or to boost their credibility - and credit rating - will exaggerate the size of their assets.
However, notwithstanding that large pinch of salt, the available evidence is that the fortunes of the UK's wealthiest 1,000 people grew by a fifth in a year, with their combined wealth now measuring £360bn.
It seems also that we now have 68 billionaires, which is three times as many as we had just four years ago.
Furthermore, this seems to be a British phenomenon.
The 20% rise in the fortunes of the UK's wealthiest in the past 12 months, compares to a rise of just under 15% for Europe's top 50 and an 8.3% increase in the wealth of the world's richest.
Should this make you feel bad?
If it does, it may console you to know that only one of the UK's top five plutocrats - the Duke of Westminster - was born in the country, a sign of the growing numbers of super-rich foreigners attracted by the UK's generous tax regime.
For, if you believe all property is theft and that riches, by definition, are ill-gotten, then it may help you to know that a large proportion of our wealthy have got to where they are through exploiting the foreign poor and not our own.
On the other hand, you might conclude that years of class envy have made our home-grown rich pretty shrewd when it comes to boasting about their money.
