We have four years to prepare for the elections, as do the political parties, yet we do nothing until the last moment, we should be out there talking to our representatives, we should be pressing them on the issues that bother us. But no, we will wait and then get stuck with the same old boring/safe faces, we need new blood in politics, we need to get some MP's who are not scared to stand up and tell it like it is. Most are just covering there arses to get another 4 years in a secure and well paid job. The system is failing, yet we allow the current crop of politicians to keep patching the system with promises that it will get better, maybe we do not want our boats rocked, maybe we dont want any disturbance in our cosy little lives, yet we want them to fix everything, well let me tell you, when someone does get out there and attempt to 'fix' what ails our society, its going to hurt most of us.
This is what scares most people, they have got into a life style that is comfortable and relatively luxurious compared to most people around the world, they don’t want that to change, this life where people do not have to do much thinking for themselves, where they can get virtually anything they want, and I do mean anything, just by quoting a credit card number.
We have been led into a life where we are just to frightened to make any major changes, where our comfort zone is now so big that, any change, would bring our world crashing down around our ears.
50 years ago a car was a luxury item, as was a television and, believe it or not, even a fridge! (We got our first fridge in 1966, up until then everything we had was fresh everyday) The things we take for granted these days were not always freely available, we forget very easily that these things are transient, the government is quite happy to have you throwing stuff away and buying the latest gadgets, it keeps the economy going, but for how much longer?
How long can we sustain this insatiable appetite that is generated by advertising and the consumer society? How long before we wake up and say “I don’t care if Joe Bloggs has a car that is 2/10ths of a second faster than mine!” (Unless you are a drag racer)?
The whole of western society is driven by this consumerism, a consumerism that is created by market forces and designed to make money for the people at the top of the tree.
They don’t care about you, they just want you to buy, and buy, and buy, as long as we ‘think’ we need the latest gadgets then they will provide, how many of you actually use all that computing power at your fingertips? We sometimes forget that these gadgets are tools and not toys.
We need people in power than will look further than 4 years ahead, we need a long term plan to get us out of this downward spiral, I somehow doubt we will get it, so be prepared to be taxed even more heavily in the coming years.
Jake
Showing posts with label tax. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tax. Show all posts
Wednesday, 10 March 2010
Monday, 29 June 2009
Petrol prices
Anyone noticed that the price of petrol is creeping up again?
Why no protests this time? I'm sure nothing has changed and we are all (Well... except maybe a few MP's) struggling in the economic climate.
As it stands petrol is 103 at my local garage, the cost of it breaks down like this
Petrol cost = 27.82p, Garage gets = 7.57p, Duty = 54.19 and VAT = 13.42p.
It is the duty and VAT that is the killer, petrol is an easy commodity to tax, almost everyone uses it and if you don't then any goods you buy must have been brought to you using it.
So when are we going to to see protests again? When it hits 105 or 110? And was has happened to the most vocal of protesters from the last demo? Suddenly its very quiet.
Recently I lost my job and had not realised how much a tank of petrol had risen, I used to put £10 in the tank of the bike and refill when the gauge told me I was low, sometimes it would not take the whole £10, now its costing me £14 to fill up, I had not noticed it creep up that much! Some time in the last two years it seems to have gone up an enormous amount.
A lot of people are struggling to make ends meet, they are trying to cut their costs to reduce outgoings and the price of petrol is not helping, most of the tax on petrol will probably get swallowed up in the spiralling cost of running this country, is it not about time government got its house in order and really clamped down on waste and inefficiency with our money.
I am absolutely certain that if our country was a business, the shareholders would be screaming for a change in the board by now. This country is run by civil servants, MP's rely on these civil servants to do the majority of the work in running the country, MP's come and go but they remain, without them the country would fall apart. Public servants though can increase their own power and budgets, who is watching over them? In the 80's Derek Rayner, the former chief executive of Marks and Spencer, was appointed as an efficiency expert and he pointed out that only 3 of the 8 BILLION spent by the civil service went on 'essential services' the rest was effectively frittered away. I wonder what that figure would be now.
Reducing that waste could allow our tax burden to come down dramatically, I am also sure that is not the only place we could reduce costs, ever wonder how much Trident is costing us? Look it up.
Rather than look at the problems logically, government tends to throw more money at them to mask the effects, this makes it look like they are doing something. They should really get back to the root cause of many of our money problems. They wont do that though, as this would show that all they have been doing all the time is quick 'popular' fixes, any government that did try to rectify the problems in this country would be very unpopular for some time as the cure will not be to the public taste, but we, or at least somebody, have to do something. This current situation will deteriorate further and further, the Labour government will just let it rot, they know they will lose the next election, so will leave it to the next government to sort it out, whoever gets in will also get most of the blame.
So when will we see the next load of petrol protests? I have no idea, I think the fight has been knocked out of all of us, we have too many other problems to worry about.
Why no protests this time? I'm sure nothing has changed and we are all (Well... except maybe a few MP's) struggling in the economic climate.
As it stands petrol is 103 at my local garage, the cost of it breaks down like this
Petrol cost = 27.82p, Garage gets = 7.57p, Duty = 54.19 and VAT = 13.42p.
It is the duty and VAT that is the killer, petrol is an easy commodity to tax, almost everyone uses it and if you don't then any goods you buy must have been brought to you using it.
So when are we going to to see protests again? When it hits 105 or 110? And was has happened to the most vocal of protesters from the last demo? Suddenly its very quiet.
Recently I lost my job and had not realised how much a tank of petrol had risen, I used to put £10 in the tank of the bike and refill when the gauge told me I was low, sometimes it would not take the whole £10, now its costing me £14 to fill up, I had not noticed it creep up that much! Some time in the last two years it seems to have gone up an enormous amount.
A lot of people are struggling to make ends meet, they are trying to cut their costs to reduce outgoings and the price of petrol is not helping, most of the tax on petrol will probably get swallowed up in the spiralling cost of running this country, is it not about time government got its house in order and really clamped down on waste and inefficiency with our money.
I am absolutely certain that if our country was a business, the shareholders would be screaming for a change in the board by now. This country is run by civil servants, MP's rely on these civil servants to do the majority of the work in running the country, MP's come and go but they remain, without them the country would fall apart. Public servants though can increase their own power and budgets, who is watching over them? In the 80's Derek Rayner, the former chief executive of Marks and Spencer, was appointed as an efficiency expert and he pointed out that only 3 of the 8 BILLION spent by the civil service went on 'essential services' the rest was effectively frittered away. I wonder what that figure would be now.
Reducing that waste could allow our tax burden to come down dramatically, I am also sure that is not the only place we could reduce costs, ever wonder how much Trident is costing us? Look it up.
Rather than look at the problems logically, government tends to throw more money at them to mask the effects, this makes it look like they are doing something. They should really get back to the root cause of many of our money problems. They wont do that though, as this would show that all they have been doing all the time is quick 'popular' fixes, any government that did try to rectify the problems in this country would be very unpopular for some time as the cure will not be to the public taste, but we, or at least somebody, have to do something. This current situation will deteriorate further and further, the Labour government will just let it rot, they know they will lose the next election, so will leave it to the next government to sort it out, whoever gets in will also get most of the blame.
So when will we see the next load of petrol protests? I have no idea, I think the fight has been knocked out of all of us, we have too many other problems to worry about.
Thursday, 14 May 2009
A few thought on MP's expense's
Nearly everyone fiddles their expenses, this is to try and claw back a bit of the extortionate amount that the government takes from our hard earned money, now most will snatch back a few quid, but some corporations have such big lawyers who know the tax system inside out, that they pay virutally no tax at all. The MP's that have 'fiddled' their expense statements are only playing the game, BUT they fixed the rules, THEY know the law and had probably passed on the info to each other on how to get what they can.
Most of the claims that have surfaced are indefensible, this means they have commited fraud in my eyes. So what should be done about this? We cant just sack every MP, chaos would reign and leave the door open for some even more unscrupulous demons to creep in.
Firstly any MP who has blantantly taken the piss should resign and put himself up for re-election, secondly we should take a long hard look at any MP who has been involved. Thirdlywe need a review of the tax laws/rules as they stand, I would suggest that we have a 10% single tax band across the board, EVERYONE pays 10%, companies, big corporations, no expections, you pay on any earned income. Then disallow any expenses, you cant claim for anything!
But then you are only paying 10% in tax, why would you need to claim anything back? Think about it, how much it simplify the tax system, take a look at how much tax some of the big corporations pay in tax after allowances, dont take my word for it, look it up some pay 0% tax.
I think this is a viable idea that should be looked at... and I'm sure some more knowledgable people will shoot me down if my figures dont add up, but maybe this or a similar way of dealing with taxes would simplify the issues.
Most of the claims that have surfaced are indefensible, this means they have commited fraud in my eyes. So what should be done about this? We cant just sack every MP, chaos would reign and leave the door open for some even more unscrupulous demons to creep in.
Firstly any MP who has blantantly taken the piss should resign and put himself up for re-election, secondly we should take a long hard look at any MP who has been involved. Thirdlywe need a review of the tax laws/rules as they stand, I would suggest that we have a 10% single tax band across the board, EVERYONE pays 10%, companies, big corporations, no expections, you pay on any earned income. Then disallow any expenses, you cant claim for anything!
But then you are only paying 10% in tax, why would you need to claim anything back? Think about it, how much it simplify the tax system, take a look at how much tax some of the big corporations pay in tax after allowances, dont take my word for it, look it up some pay 0% tax.
I think this is a viable idea that should be looked at... and I'm sure some more knowledgable people will shoot me down if my figures dont add up, but maybe this or a similar way of dealing with taxes would simplify the issues.
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
No to bike parking fees (tax)
Last night I attended a demo against the motorbike parkings fees that Westminster council have imposed on the motorbike parking bays, 4500 bikers turned up and hardly a mention on the news, in fact they reported 'hundreds' the fact that there was no trouble did not make it news worthy apparently (from a source of mine who works for ITN).
Counncilor Chalkey has made it quite clear that he will not drop this 'experimental' charge, I would have thought there were 4500 reasons to do just that last night.
How out of touch is this man to ignore the wishes of the public, there was a vast array of people from all walks of life there last night, including a few celebs who wanted to stay low key but turned to show their support, I was also very surprised and pleased by the number of women riders who turned up, women are becoming a large force in the biking world these days.
Around 50 bikers where allowed in to present their case, unfortunately I could not get in to hear the procedings, the reasons given by the council have been covered very well on http://www.notobikeparkingfees.com/ by the guys so I will not reiterate them here.
This post is just to point out that 4500 bikers bought London to a stand still and there was no trouble whatsoever, they came out to protest against a 'tax' they they feel is unfair, the council will rake in 1 million pounds a year from this, I wonder what their real incentive is, it certainly is not to reduce pollution, bikes do not create much, reduce traffic maybe? Bikes take up far less room and help the trafic to flow better. The excuses for this tax make no sense, the only outcome from this is more money for the council, so it is in fact a tax.
I would also like to thank everyone who turned out last night, excellent show everyone!
Jake
Counncilor Chalkey has made it quite clear that he will not drop this 'experimental' charge, I would have thought there were 4500 reasons to do just that last night.
How out of touch is this man to ignore the wishes of the public, there was a vast array of people from all walks of life there last night, including a few celebs who wanted to stay low key but turned to show their support, I was also very surprised and pleased by the number of women riders who turned up, women are becoming a large force in the biking world these days.
Around 50 bikers where allowed in to present their case, unfortunately I could not get in to hear the procedings, the reasons given by the council have been covered very well on http://www.notobikeparkingfees.com/ by the guys so I will not reiterate them here.
This post is just to point out that 4500 bikers bought London to a stand still and there was no trouble whatsoever, they came out to protest against a 'tax' they they feel is unfair, the council will rake in 1 million pounds a year from this, I wonder what their real incentive is, it certainly is not to reduce pollution, bikes do not create much, reduce traffic maybe? Bikes take up far less room and help the trafic to flow better. The excuses for this tax make no sense, the only outcome from this is more money for the council, so it is in fact a tax.
I would also like to thank everyone who turned out last night, excellent show everyone!
Jake
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