It is now being widely reported that, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the "black hole" which was the basis for this Budget never existed.
As Margaret Thatcher once observed... The Government has NO money... Yet The Government and its services are a 'living being'. And, like all 'living beings', it needs to grow to ensure it survives. It only has one way to do this and at everyone else's expense... Tax, which enables it to amass more, to borrow more, to grow more, to survive. And, so it goes, until the narrative is changed. Otherwise the middle and entrepreneurial classes will be eliminated... probably through 'black holes' or other newly discovered, or invented financial phenomena that create the need for more taxation. And, who is paying for the creation and application of these 'dark' arts... Oh, I forgot, we are!
I find it hard to get my head around tax, as I have lived a life where I have never had to think about it much - bizarre though that is! I guess it is also deliberately set up to confuse and be deadly boring.
So interesting that many taxes we 'take for granted' have not been around for very long.
Looking forward to your thoughts on non-compliance.
I find myself recommending 'That Hideous Strength' a lot these days! Particularly around how easy it is to suck someone into helping further humanity's demise through flattery and playing on insecurities and the desire to belong to the in-group. The former mayor of my city springs to mind, amongst many others.
You fiscal situation (!) illustrates one of the main points of the piece. You may not directly pay income tax but you're contributing to the tax pot in myriad ways. As new and hidden taxes get introduced, that becomes truer and truer ... and that affects you and yours through higher costs and a lower standard of living.
The level of financial power our current tax arrangements give to government is mind-boggling. Taxes are effectively an instrument of power: not only can they upend lives, they can also radically transform society. This could be the effect of inheritance tax on farmers: not only does it help to transfer assets but it's also another step towards making a population dependent on the industrialised, bio-engineered foods being developed apace. And if this budget is implemented, it looks as if a similar culling will happen in the high street, as new business rates close shops, pubs and cafes.
South Glos Council is hiking council tax up by 4.99%, which is the maximum allowed without a local referendum. At the same time they are cutting back services like public toilets and meals on wheels, and making green bin collections extortionate (gaining an allotment meant I narrowly missed the doubling of fees last year - the allotment is cheaper and I am in charge of my own compost…). Apparently finances are having to be channelled into getting SEND children to school. Probably partly because they keep blocking roads, making journeys longer and more expensive… Car parking charges have been introduced in local car parks (loved your one sentence summary of what road parking charges actually are), so no-one is parking there anymore. It looks like all the money the council invested in the payment infrastructure has been wasted, if it was really about replenishing council coffers in the first place… People are starting to suspect they just want to build flats on the car parks. Plus of course local businesses are clearly suffering through this as well as everything else. And at the same time they are going to have a ‘budget consultation process’ so that ‘everyone gets heard’ (and promptly ignored), whilst also consulting on how to spend UK government funds that have been made available for improving my local high street. It is of course clear from the ‘consultation’ info that these ‘improvements’ are just about more planters with unsuitable plants that need a lot of care, some revolting street art, and more ‘events’, of which there are quite enough already. As Dave says on loop, you couldn’t make it up.
Yes, it's rampant. They will continue, if we let them, until there's nothing left. My comparison with Albania is not a frivolous one.
Thought For Today: the Budget has to be approved by Parliament. If MPs vote it through, they will effectively be saying the government can do anything. Manifesto promises, any sort of truthful account of the public finances, go by the board. It will just be ongoing Taking.
And returning to That Hideous Strength, only possible because of the many people just following orders and being given a meaning or just a way to scrape by within the system, who can't see the role they are playing in the enormous machine that is steamrollering over them. So many people who still think the solution is to vote for a different party because they actually believe what politicians in opposition tell them.
AUTHOR UPDATE:
It is now being widely reported that, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility, the "black hole" which was the basis for this Budget never existed.
As Margaret Thatcher once observed... The Government has NO money... Yet The Government and its services are a 'living being'. And, like all 'living beings', it needs to grow to ensure it survives. It only has one way to do this and at everyone else's expense... Tax, which enables it to amass more, to borrow more, to grow more, to survive. And, so it goes, until the narrative is changed. Otherwise the middle and entrepreneurial classes will be eliminated... probably through 'black holes' or other newly discovered, or invented financial phenomena that create the need for more taxation. And, who is paying for the creation and application of these 'dark' arts... Oh, I forgot, we are!
Beautifully put!
I find it hard to get my head around tax, as I have lived a life where I have never had to think about it much - bizarre though that is! I guess it is also deliberately set up to confuse and be deadly boring.
So interesting that many taxes we 'take for granted' have not been around for very long.
Looking forward to your thoughts on non-compliance.
I find myself recommending 'That Hideous Strength' a lot these days! Particularly around how easy it is to suck someone into helping further humanity's demise through flattery and playing on insecurities and the desire to belong to the in-group. The former mayor of my city springs to mind, amongst many others.
You fiscal situation (!) illustrates one of the main points of the piece. You may not directly pay income tax but you're contributing to the tax pot in myriad ways. As new and hidden taxes get introduced, that becomes truer and truer ... and that affects you and yours through higher costs and a lower standard of living.
The level of financial power our current tax arrangements give to government is mind-boggling. Taxes are effectively an instrument of power: not only can they upend lives, they can also radically transform society. This could be the effect of inheritance tax on farmers: not only does it help to transfer assets but it's also another step towards making a population dependent on the industrialised, bio-engineered foods being developed apace. And if this budget is implemented, it looks as if a similar culling will happen in the high street, as new business rates close shops, pubs and cafes.
Yep. It’s Dickensian, to the point of absurdity.
Here’s my little rant for today:
South Glos Council is hiking council tax up by 4.99%, which is the maximum allowed without a local referendum. At the same time they are cutting back services like public toilets and meals on wheels, and making green bin collections extortionate (gaining an allotment meant I narrowly missed the doubling of fees last year - the allotment is cheaper and I am in charge of my own compost…). Apparently finances are having to be channelled into getting SEND children to school. Probably partly because they keep blocking roads, making journeys longer and more expensive… Car parking charges have been introduced in local car parks (loved your one sentence summary of what road parking charges actually are), so no-one is parking there anymore. It looks like all the money the council invested in the payment infrastructure has been wasted, if it was really about replenishing council coffers in the first place… People are starting to suspect they just want to build flats on the car parks. Plus of course local businesses are clearly suffering through this as well as everything else. And at the same time they are going to have a ‘budget consultation process’ so that ‘everyone gets heard’ (and promptly ignored), whilst also consulting on how to spend UK government funds that have been made available for improving my local high street. It is of course clear from the ‘consultation’ info that these ‘improvements’ are just about more planters with unsuitable plants that need a lot of care, some revolting street art, and more ‘events’, of which there are quite enough already. As Dave says on loop, you couldn’t make it up.
Yes, it's rampant. They will continue, if we let them, until there's nothing left. My comparison with Albania is not a frivolous one.
Thought For Today: the Budget has to be approved by Parliament. If MPs vote it through, they will effectively be saying the government can do anything. Manifesto promises, any sort of truthful account of the public finances, go by the board. It will just be ongoing Taking.
And returning to That Hideous Strength, only possible because of the many people just following orders and being given a meaning or just a way to scrape by within the system, who can't see the role they are playing in the enormous machine that is steamrollering over them. So many people who still think the solution is to vote for a different party because they actually believe what politicians in opposition tell them.
Yes. We've some way to go ...