The elitists on the rich list

This trend is not the consequence of accident or good luck on the part of wealthy individuals. It is the result of deliberate government policy reinforcing a tendency that is embedded in the structure of Britain's capitalist economy.

It is no coincidence that many, if not most, of the richest people here are making their fortunes in finance, oil, property, pharmaceuticals and retailing.

On top of the normal profit created by the workers in these sectors - whose labour power creates more value than the value of their wages - giant corporations are able to use their market dominance to reap monopoly profit, imposing abnormally high prices on consumers who have little option but to pay them.

Of course, much of the capitalist media will pick over the Sunday Times survey to highlight the position in the league table of a celebrity musician or football club owner. The philanthropic activities of a few will add some extra glitter.

Doubtless we will also be told about the self-made multimillionaires who have worked their way up from the bottom, either through sheer hard work - although that doesn't seem to do the trick for most people - or after striking it lucky with a social website or a software package.

None of this should be allowed to conceal the class reality behind the rags to riches stories.

Most of the rich were born into wealthy families, the majority went to public schools and hardly any of them have worked their way up from the factory or office floor.

Most employ armies of tax consultants and compliant accountants whose job is by fair means or foul to minimise the amount their masters contribute to the Inland Revenue.

Indeed it is highly unlikely that Sunday Times researchers have detected a large proportion of the wealth that many among the super-rich have stashed away in tax havens from the Isle of Man and the Channel Isles, to the Cayman Islands and Belize.

Almost all of the super-rich will pass on a substantial share of their loot to family heirs, while future governments drone on piously about creating "equality of opportunity" and "a level playing field" for all children in our society.

And whether it's paying low wages, indulging in cartelism, enjoying one of the lowest rates of corporation tax in the Western world, reaping high dividends, dodging taxes altogether or exporting funds to a tax haven under British jurisdiction, they benefit enormously from the policies of successive British governments.

At the same time many millions of employed and unemployed workers, pensioners, students, carers and others struggle to make ends meet in the teeth of the reduced incomes and ongoing redundancies demanded by the austerity and privatisation programme.

The conscious, deliberate aim of this unelected Con Dem regime is to reduce taxes on the rich and big business, protect the banks and financial markets at any price to the public purse, and boost the mega-profits of the capitalist monopolies.

That is why just 1,000 people own at least £414 billion between them - almost exactly the same amount as owned by half the households in Britain, according to the Office of National Statistics.

These figures on their own make the case for a wealth tax on the super-rich.