Captains of Industry attack Gordon Brown

Interesting news item yesterday.
A group of the UK’s leading business people have signed a petition in the Press urging the Prime Minister to stop his proposed changes to the National Insurance system.
National Insurance (N.I.) is a form of taxation levied both on employers and also employees which is deducted at source (i.e. direct from your pay packet / salary) as a way to pay for the UK’s system of health care, the N.H.S. (or National Health Service).
It was set up in 1948 by the Labour government after World War Two.
In the 1930’s before the creation of the N.H.S. if you were poor in this country, and were unlucky enough to get ill then life could be tough
Free health care at the point of delivery is one of the most civilised aspects of our modern democratic society
In other parts of this planet people are not so lucky and getting ill can be hazardous plus costly.
It is civilised because we have the comfort of knowing that if you call an ambulance for somebody who falls down in the street then you personally do not pay the bill for their medical treatment.
Most European countries, have a similar system, the governments of the E.U. have what’s called a reciprocal agreement.
Therefore as a citizen of the European Union you are entitled to free health care in other member states.
Travel agents rarely share this information with Brit tourists booking holidays within Europe.
In the Netherlands; Spain or another E.U. country all you have to do is to show proof of your identity to the authorities before you get treated by the doctor. This is the highly valuable and in my humble opinion …very civilised.
This is the safety net which National Insurance contributions pay for.
All the political parties seem to have formed a consensus that the British government needs to savagely axe spending on services such as education and health care or raise taxes to pay off the government’s huge burden of debt.

Anyway
… back to the British Captains of Industry and their wrath at Mr. Brown
They argue that proposed changes to the National Insurance scheme will slow down Britain’s recovery from the economic recession and make it ‘more expensive’ to hire an employee.
People who earn more than 150 thousand a year are probably unlikely to use NHS hospitals anyway (unlike the majority of the population)
… the rich have access to privatised health care.

The Captains of Industry are worried.
Prime Minister Brown has also just proposed a new tax on Britain’s super-rich.
They are all threatening a huge exodus from Britain.
To countries where they would pay less tax (like Switzerland).
Could this be the real reason they are upset with Gordon Brown??