The cut in housing benefit for under-occupied state housing was mis-named by Labour as the ‘Bedroom Tax’, for want of a snappier description. The official title of ‘Spare Room Subsidy’ was by comparison an also-ran. Despite being a benefit reduction the ‘Bedroom tax’ became the standard title used by the BBC…

Labour might call George Osborne’s proposal to make higher earners living in state housing pay market rates a ‘tax on success’ or an ‘aspiration tax’ or some such. They are perhaps brainstorming the best phrase right now for Harriet Harman to use. The most famous high earner in social housing was the late Bob Crow, who by not moving out and using his salary to buy a house instead denied a dwelling to a family lower on the income scale in greater need. This made a mockery of the Marxist mantra of ‘to each according to his needs’. Crow rented for clear ideological reasons.

The ‘Bob Crow Tax’ seems the obvious name for this measure. In Bob’s honour…