Editing Nicholas Soames (section)

==Inheritance tax relief==
In one edition of ''[[The Mark Thomas Comedy Product]]'', [[Mark Thomas]] investigated the practice of avoiding inheritance tax by declaring art, furniture, homes and land available for public viewing. After discovering that Soames was claiming tax relief on a "three-tier mahogany buffet with partially reeded slender balustrade upright supports" on this basis, but without making any arrangements for the furniture to be inspected by the public, Thomas invented a 'National Soames Day' on which hundreds of people made appointments to see the furniture.<ref name="BBC 31 October 2006">{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/wales/6102120.stm |title=Wales@Westminster newslog |last=Cornock |first=David |date=31 October 2006 |work=BBC News |access-date=23 May 2016}}</ref><ref name="The Independent 31 October 2015">{{cite news |last=Jacques |first=Adam |title=Mark Thomas interview: The social-activist comedian talks opera, charity shops, and Nicholas Soames |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/mark-thomas-interview-the-social-activist-comedian-talks-opera-charity-shops-and-nicholas-soames-a6714471.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220619/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/profiles/mark-thomas-interview-the-social-activist-comedian-talks-opera-charity-shops-and-nicholas-soames-a6714471.html |archive-date=19 June 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |date=31 October 2015 |work=[[The Independent]] |location=London |access-date=23 May 2016}}</ref> In 2015, Thomas told ''[[The Independent]]'''s Adam Jacques: "I try to find the good in my enemies. It's not unusual to be able to get on with people despite what they are doing being awful. The only person I have met who I considered to be without any redeeming features was [...] Nicholas Soames. [...] He was such a pantomime baddie."<ref name="The Independent 31 October 2015"/>