Police State-Tax Is Punishment!

Like a smoke? The fuckers will hammer you with tax, naughty boy.


Like a drink? The fuckers will hammer you with tax, naughty boy.


Like to pop out in the car? The fuckers will hammer you with tax, naughty boy.


Like to earn a living? The fuckers will hammer you with tax, naughty boy.


Like to run your own business and employ people? The fuckers will hammer you with tax, naughty boy.


Like a bit of sugar in your brew? The fuckers are limbering up to tax you, naughty boy. (Call for Sugar Tax)


What does the government do with all your money? Gives millions to the EU, spends millions trying to buy your votes, while passing ever more oppressive legislation, and invades foreign countries.


We have a moral duty to pay as little tax as we possibly can.

Another Fine Mess, Still!

I'll lay my cards on the table, I'm no economic genius, I managed to scrape an 'O' Level in Government, Economics and Commerce but that's it. But even I can sense that something is wrong and little seems to be being done to fix it.

It seems to me that basic economics on a national scale should follow, roughly, the principles of our personal economics, meaning that by and large you live within your means. OK you take out the occasional loan for a new car, a holiday or whatever but to build up debt way beyond your income is seen, quite rightly, as irresponsible. So why should government behave any differently?

Many individuals are in a position, if they have borrowed a little too much, to work some overtime or maybe get a second job to bring in some extra money. What can government do? It is unproductive, it doesn't earn money, all it can do is tax or borrow. Anybody thinking the current government is acting responsibly should think again, maybe take a look at this report from the Taxpayers' Alliance. It details how this government has raised taxes in over 200 instances.

That doesn't strike me as being very conservative. A personal economics analogy might be the family who run up an unsustainable debt being able to look at the family next door, who have been prudent and saved, and take a few grand out of their savings account. That doesn't seem very fair to me. To put it on a national scale look at the proposed theft from savers in Cyprus by the European Union. I don't see government trying to tax its way out of debt being any different. But many people seem to accept this, failing to understand that government doesn't have a big money tree that it can pluck the odd million quid off, it has to take it from us, or borrow it.

What it seems to me is that we need a conservative government with guts. Osborne today could take some brave measures. He could cut VAT, cut income tax for the lower paid. Give the long term unemployed a tax holiday if they find work. Reduce fuel duty and the hated alcohol duty, and that's just a few ideas.

Yes people have become welfare dependent. But that is because government has created the conditions where it is possible for people to not bother working. People attack migrants, especially from Eastern Europe, but they are coming here and finding work, and living quite comfortably, in jobs that it seems too many people refuse to take. Otherwise why are there so many British people on benefits while migrants are gainfully employed? Blame the state, not the immigrants.

Fair enough, they would have to balance the books. Well start with looking at the huge waste in bureaucracy, the huge amount of money we send each day to the EU. The huge amount of money it costs us each day enforcing EU rules and regulations. The huge amount of money wasted in education on pointless and trivial degree courses, then look at the quality of some of the so-called graduates. Let's look at the huge amount we send abroad in aid. Stop it, it seems to be either going to countries such as India and China who don't need it, or to countries where it is being squandered by corrupt governments.

But I'm not holding my breath. Let's face it the Tories are led by Cameron, a liberal democrat in reality. He couldn't even beat Gordon Brown in 2010 so what chance has he got in 2015 of winning? Even if he did what was needed today it probably wouldn't be enough. And, when putting Cameron in a list of good Conservative leaders/ PMs remember, even John Major managed to win, against all the odds, in 1992. Cameron was a washed up nothing before 2010 and he just convinces us all the more with every day that passes.

I Smell Political Bullshit!

Prize for the most fatuous political bullshit of the year so far has to go to George Osborne for the following statement on why he, a multimillionaire, is happy to give up child benefit:

"I'm giving up my child benefit from today so that my children-and yours-aren't saddled with our debts forever". 

Job done then. But bloody hell, how much has he been getting in child benefit?

In a further bout of political bullshit induced nausea I got a phone call today from an ex-UKIP member asking me if I had the details of their regional office so he could rejoin. Interestingly he managed to get my new mobile number but couldn't find the number of UKIP's regional office. Says it all really.

Anyway he wanted to rejoin because they are doing so well at the moment. Stop the bandwagon, I want to clamber aboard. When I asked him how he'd come to this conclusion he told me how they were on 16% in a current opinion poll. I see, job done then, they've cracked it. Wonder what went on at the last election then when polls put them on double figures but they could barely muster around 4% in the election? Oh aye, an opinion poll is meaningless crap whereas elections actually see people get elected. Big difference.

My prediction for the next two years? The Tory media will continue to 'big up' UKIP and their threat to the Tories so that said Tories will return to the Tory fold for fear of handing the next election to Miliband and co.

If that fails there will be a series of exposes of Farage's sordid personal life involving allegations of excessive drink and Eastern European ladies of a very generous nature to Western European gents with big fat expense accounts. At least one other UKIP MEP will be caught claiming huge expenses for not turning up and another one will make an admission about unmentionable sex with an animal in a former colony when he was a callow youth.  

Not forgetting the home front a UKIP local election candidate will hit the news by advocating the chemical castration of homosexuals and the beheading of anybody caught wearing a burka.

Seems pretty much like business as usual then.

Jimmy Carr

Good on Jimmy Carr.

We all have a duty to take care of our families first and foremost, and that's what he has done. But he is now being pilloried for legally ensuring he keeps as much as he earns as he can. If he wanted to work for the government he would have become a civil servant.

By contrast Cameron attacks him as "immoral". The British Prime Minister, head of an unelected government, that squanders millions on pet schemes and bombing other countries, not to mention denying us a referendum on the EU, and he has the audacity to attack Jimmy Carr as "immoral".

Up yours Cameron.

My Tax Statement

This week I've been really pissed off with people expressing hatred of anybody who has a few more bob than them minimising their tax liabilities. If they love paying tax so bloody much then make a few voluntray extra payments to HMRC, I'm sure Giddy Osborne and co would be very grateful.

If any of those jumping on the 'tax 'em 'til the pips squeak' bandwagon have never tried to minimise tax contributions I might respect them, although I would still disagree. But I'll bet they've bought duty free  goods at some time. I bet they've bought cheap booze and fags in France and elsewhere at some time. I'll bet they've filled up their tanks at Calais to avoid paying our ludicrously high fuel duty a little longer when they get back. I bet they've filled their fuel tanks the day before a budget to avoid paying extra duty. I bet they've made charitable donations by gift aid thus depriving the exchequer of income towards the NHS or whatever. I bet they've saved in an ISA or some other 'tax efficient' saving scheme.

My moral duty is to provide as best I can for my family. My moral duty is not, and never will be, to waste hard earned cash by pouring any more than I have to into the bottomless pockets of the state. My moral obligation is to pay as little tax as I legally can. And if I'm one day worth millions I will still live by the same principles.

Councils and Consultants

I rarely read our local paper, it's the Lancaster Guardian and is about as shite as the proper Guardian, but I just happened to peep at a copy this morning and I was shocked.

My local council, Lancaster City Council, spent over £1m last year on consultants. Over £1m! That is an absolutely scandalous waste of taxpayers' money. A proportion of that went on consultants paid for legal advice, despite having their own Legal Services Department.

I won't bore you with all the detail, but it is on the Lancaster Guardian website if you would like to see the article.

I recently came across a media consultancy that charges a reported £1,500 a day plus VAT to tell councillors and council officials how to work with the media. That despite most of the councils they work with actually employing media/PR people already.

I do not accept that any reasonably sized local authority in this day and age needs to employ ridiculously expensive consultants, they must have all the expertise they could need on their payroll already. If they don't they are doing something wrong.

Consultants are the obvious place to start cutting and millions and millions of pounds could be saved in local government at a stroke, without affecting essential services.

Government Cuts, Propaganda and Charities

It's absolutely crucial that the government cuts, cuts and cuts even deeper. There are several reasons but firstly the government squanders money and in the process grabs more and more power over us, the innocent populace. Also the govenment doesn't actually have any money to spend, it thieves from the likes of you and me so it is actually squandering our money. Forgive me, but I think we know best how to spend our money.

Today the NCVO (National Council of Voluntary Organisations) is whining that government cuts to local authority funding could seriously damage some charities. Good, that's life. I've spent most of my life as a volunteer and over 20 years working in the charity sector and in that time I have seen the voluntary sector go from a healthy, independent, largely self-financing sector to an overstaffed, bloated, taxpayer funded bureaucracy. Many charities and voluntary organisations have been nationalised.

Of course when charities take the easy route, and accept taxpayers' money, they immediately lose their independence, he who pays the piper calls the tune. Their campaigning edge, especially in the world of medical chrities which is my background, has been blunted. They've sold their souls and the last government were experts at buying them off.

And voluntary means just that, voluntary. If I support the Citizen's Advice Bureau I will choose to support it financially. If I don't support that charity I do not want my money being forcibly taken from me and given to them through taxation. I don't accept the bleeding heart liberal cry that charities will die if they don't get government funding. If they are worthwhile people will happily cough up the cash. If they don't survive, it's because they don't deserve to survive because people don't support them. It's quite simple.

So don't listen to the pinko liberal self-serving propoganda from the vested interests in the voluntary sector. Cuts are a good thing and the more and deeper the better.

Which brings me nicely to a classic song from the eighties that reminds me of life in Glossop, Derbyshire, the wild days!

Ladies and gentlemen I give you Propaganda with The First Cut:



Now I'm off to watch Le Tour de France on ITV4.

More Green Taxes From Motorists?

This article appeared in WHATCAR? in March 2008.

This article appeared in the Daily Telegraph today.

The thrust of the first article was that the government was planning to introduce average speed cameras on 500 miles of motorway for safety reasons, because currently used cameras don't work. Yeah right, piss all to do with upping the income from motorists then.

In the second article the Department of Transport is now hiding behind a front organisation, the Sustainable Development Commission, to claim that average speed checks should be introduced on all motorways because reducing speed is necessary for the saving of the environment.

All bollocks. Muggins green/environmentalists will applaud it, the gullible will think it will help to save a polar bear so it's grudgingly accept it. The rest of us know the truth, it will generate millions in income for the government to spend on further building its police state.

Another Tax, The Bastards

Yesterday I got home to find a letter from Lancaster City Council, the bastards in the title.

It was informing me that I had to pay £45 for 'Second Hand Goods Registration', the tax in the title.

The reason the council are trying to rob me of even more cash is that I have a stall at Morecambe Antiques and Collectables. This is an indoor market where you pay rent, leave your goods on your stall and there is one payment desk where people pay for the goods. It's a great concept enabling people to develop a little sideline or even develop it as part of a bigger venture, but the key is you don't need to be there to sell your stuff. My stall has secondhand books on it and in six months plus, has barely broken even. Things are just picking up a little but it has been more a hobby than anything.

Lancaster City Council recently sent a member of their licensing stasi to snoop there, hence the letter demanding money with menace that I have recived. The menace being that if I don't cough up they will prosecute me. It seems that the Licensing Regulatory Committee agreed this form of theft on 25 March 2004.

As a consequence I have decided there is no point continuing my little venture. OK £45 wouldn't break the bank, but when I'm making no money from it anyway it is a point of principle.

Fair enough it's hardly on the scale of Woolworth's closing down. But it is my very own, very small experience of how the bureaucrats screw up business. And the few people who wanted to pay £1 for one of my quality secondhand books will now be deprived of that opportunity. I shall be taking my stock to a local charity shop.

I've been told that in Lancashire anybody who does two or more car boot sales in a week also has to pay this legalised theft.The licensing stasi tour the car boot sales clocking car registrations. And I thought traffic wardens/police were scum.

Sinn Fein Snouts In The Trough

Even those loveable democrats in Sinn Fein/IRA are at it. Perhaps after supposedly giving up the Armalite for the ballot box they are snouting taxpayer cash with the zeal of the convert.

Isn't it strange how their principles stop them taking their seats in the House of Commons but not the associated cash. Below is from Teletext:

The row over MPs' expenses has extended to Sinn Fein with the disclosure that the party's five MPs have claimed more than £400,000 on a pair of London flats.

It was reported that in the last financial year the five claimed a total of £105,000 even though they do not take their seats at Westminster and are rarely seen in London.

Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness, Pat Doherty, Michelle Gildernew, and Conor Murphy each claimed £21,000 in Additional Cost Allowances.

The Daily Mail said that since the figures were first published in 2001/02, the Sinn Fein MPs had received a total of £437,405 in the taxpayer funded allowance.

A party spokesman defended the claims. He said that the two rented properties were used by the MPs on a shared basis when they were in London.

"Sinn Fein MPs do not receive a salary from Westminster, nor do they employ any family members. Sinn Fein makes no apology for refusing to sit in the British House of Commons," the spokesman said.

"We also make no apology for ensuring that people who vote for Sinn Fein get the same democratic entitlements as everyone else."

However the payments were strongly condemned by senior Tories.

Shadow Northern Ireland secretary Owen Paterson told The Daily Mail: "It is completely unacceptable for Sinn Fein representatives, who won't even sit in Parliament, to claim hundreds of thousands at the taxpayers' expense.

"That is why the Conservatives have consistently opposed members who refuse to take their seats receiving the accommodation allowance."

Once a pig always a pig I suppose.

Taxing The Poor (Drinker)

One of the most ridiculous quotes for a long time must be the following from health fascism supremo Professor Liam Donaldson:

"Cheap alcohol is killing us as never before".

Speak for yourself matey boy, you might be drinking yourself to death on cheap cider but the overwhelming majority of us aren't, even if we do drink more than you suggest we should when you pop out of your Whitehall ivory tower to nag and patronise us.

All his suggestion would do is put the poorer drinker, probably on a sink estate, into even more poverty. He has lost touch with reality to such an extent that he doesn't realise that the worst drinkers will give up on almost everything else, including relatively healthy food, to pay for booze and fags.

Up to now it looks like the governmant are ignoring him thankfully.

One World-One State?

Gordon Brown and New Labour have bankrupted the UK so he is now desperately trying to grab cash from wherever he can. According to this report in the Grauniad world leaders are drawing up plans to shaft tax havens which 'cost' the top economies £100bn each year in tax avoidance.

I'm not sure how Switzerland, the Cayman Islands and others will respond to this but I guess they won't just declare "oh go on then" and roll over. Who knows, perhaps like spreading democracy they will get the crap bombed out of them in the interests of fiscal equality.

I prefer to see independent nation states setting their own rules and levels of taxation. Perhaps if so many countries, such as the UK, didn't have such high taxes, and squander so much of its tax revenue, then people would be happy to pay a little more rather than looking for perfectly legal loopholes.

The Recession

When it comes to matters financial I am an absolute no-hoper. But one thing that does trouble me in the current situation, is the use of our taxes to bale out failing banks. I have visited my accountant this morning, to be told that my tax burden has increased, and I mentioned my view on the bale out of banks to him. Surprise, surprise he agrees with me, let them go to the wall.

One blog that I look up to in a certain amount of awe when I am wondering about matters financial is Mark Wadsworth's Blog. I can definitely recommend a visit and, a few days ago, he ran a poll on baling out banks and 51% believed they should be left to fail. Perhaps I'm not that dim after all.

The other concern is that the current trend, here, in the USA and elsewhere, is going directly against the free market system and will merely store up trouble in the future. It seems to be a gross distortion of free market capitalism and gives failing banks an unfair advantage over banks that have perhaps behaved a little more responsibly. It is corporatism and not free market capitalism to blame. So I was heartened to visit T Bishop Finger, another excellent blog, to find that he had posted a film of Ron Paul, the American libertarian, saying exactly that.

Other than that the only thing to say is tighten your belts!

Taxed To Death, And After Death

I've just found my recent attack on EU inspired taxation in the Lancaster and Morecambe Citizen. You can read it by clicking here.

Are the non-Domiciled Rich and the City Good for England?

Are the non-Domiciled Rich and the City Good for England? This article was written by Sean Gabb, Director of the Libertarian Alliance, on his train journey to work this morning. Dr Gabb never ceases to amaze.

There is an interesting reference to Mohammed al-Fayed towards the end of the article, paticularly relevant as he is heavily featured, for other reasons, in the news today.