Its the labour party for me.

[L00b]

However, as stated earlier the people we should really be targeting aren't going to be affect by tax rises as they will already be using every legal and potential illegal method to keep their tax payments as low as they can possibly screw.

That's permitted by the sheer complexity which tax law has reached, in this country as in others, wherein you can't do or tweak any aspect of it, without creating ricocheting effects somewhere else, which (frequently as not ex-Treasury ) tax experts are highly paid to find and exploit before No.11 has even copped on to the existence of the problem.

 

Civil service with budget cut to the bone and -likely- morale well down the tubes versus private sector, profit-driven, ultra-competitive and high-rewarded service provider. Guess which finds it easier to stay ahead of the other?

 

The UK, and most elsewhere developed, needs a tax tabula rasa and a concerted rebuild. Don't hold your breath.

Guess why most of mine is not in the UK any more.

I bailed out before the 20% flap Edited May 17, 2017 by L00b

[mossdog]

.........notice Golds gone back up over £28 per ounce over the past week.Could mean investors suspect Labour might do better than expected at the election and if they get in the pound will drop still further, so back buying Gold again.

[Obelix]

.........notice Golds gone back up over £28 per ounce over the past week.Could mean investors suspect Labour might do better than expected at the election and if they get in the pound will drop still further, so back buying Gold again.

 

At 1234 an ounce having risen from 1222 a week ago and fallen from 1286 a month ago.

 

That's hardly a meteoric rise indicative of a panic or anything TBH....

[mossdog]

At 1234 an ounce having risen from 1222 a week ago and fallen from 1286 a month ago.

 

That's hardly a meteoric rise indicative of a panic or anything TBH....

.......never mentioned a meteoric rise or panic buying!........but if I am swapping cash for gold I suspect others are doing as well.Gold tends to be a barometer in situations like we are in at the moment!

[crookedspire]

.......never mentioned a meteoric rise or panic buying!........but if I am swapping cash for gold I suspect others are doing as well.Gold tends to be a barometer in situations like we are in at the moment!

 

Prices of metal go up and down all the time wasn't that long ago we had scrap men knocking on the door ' any scrap mate'?

[Obelix]

.......never mentioned a meteoric rise or panic buying!........but if I am swapping cash for gold I suspect others are doing as well.Gold tends to be a barometer in situations like we are in at the moment!

 

I never said you did but if you think that a shift of 0.2% a day is indicative or barometric of anything then I think you are going to be disappointed.

[JNewton69]

Has it? Are you done now? Left school with no aspirations and just do enough to get by? You aren't like that surely - according to your profile you live in Crookes ;)

 

Crookes is my Shangri-La.

[carosio]

Anything you buy including houses should be added to the VAT scope and it's name probably changed as it won't just be value added tax anymore!

 

Which would include food and water!

[Mister M]

I have read the report, but more importantly I saw the interview. He was pressed and pressed again on what was a minor point, while the big stuff was ignored. It's once again made a mountain out of an unimportant molehill. He said he was well paid for the job he does.

 

He lives a modest, relatively frugal life. He doesn't spend lavishly, he gives it away. What's the problem?

 

 

Like you I saw the interview and from memory I think he acknowledged that he was well paid for the job he does and very fortunate. IIRC what the interviewer was asking him was does he consider himself wealthy, because the LP want to tax people like him a bit more.

Perhaps the fact that he does live a relatively modest and frugal life is the problem.

 

Even after the outrage caused by the MPs expenses scandal, where I believe Corbyn claims very little for expenses. The press could highlight that, and contrast it with the fact that Theresa May was recently criticised for wearing a pair of salubrious leather trousers. They didn't. They did rip into him for not having his top button of his shirt collar undone.

 

I don't think anyone has accused Theresa May's Dad of hating the British people, or taking us back to the 1970s, after she had suggested putting a cap on energy prices. No, she was looking after the "just about managing" from the "greedy energy companies."

 

I think when she became PM, her first act was to scrap maintenance grants for the poorest students. Yet in her inaugural speech as Prime Minister May complained that "If you’re a white working-class boy you’re less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university."

 

Corbyn should've said "Yes I consider myself wealthy, and will be paying more tax if I'm the PM." That would've avoided the understandable media furore.

Edited May 17, 2017 by Mister M

[Anna B]

That's permitted by the sheer complexity which tax law has reached, in this country as in others, wherein you can't do or tweak any aspect of it, without creating ricocheting effects somewhere else, which (frequently as not ex-Treasury ) tax experts are highly paid to find and exploit before No.11 has even copped on to the existence of the problem.

 

Civil service with budget cut to the bone and -likely- morale well down the tubes versus private sector, profit-driven, ultra-competitive and high-rewarded service provider. Guess which finds it easier to stay ahead of the other?

 

The UK, and most elsewhere developed, needs a tax tabula rasa and a concerted rebuild. Don't hold your breath.

I bailed out before the 20% flap

 

The tax laws are now so complex because a culture has risen up among the wealthy that they can ignore the simple intention of the law, and wriggle instead through the minutia of every word, phrase, and comma to find loopholes. They employ entire teams of lawyers and accountants to do this. They can afford it. The morality of all this doesn't seem to trouble them at all.

 

That means the tax law has to be continually rewritten to plug the holes. And that is why it becomes evermore complicated, and takes up time, money and manhours that should be going into dealing with the proper processing of taxes.

 

I pay my taxes. So do most people. I recognise the need for tax to pay for necessary infrastructure. But of course 'only little people pay taxes'

 

I get angry when rich people complain about paying tax. If they pay more than other people it's because they are significantly richer than other people. If they pay a lot more they are extremely wealthy. They should be thankful for their good fortune. If you earn more, you pay more. I use the word 'earn' loosely as the people most at fault are the super rich who have more money than some small countries, don't work at all, and avoid tax like the plague. If that tax were collected think of the difference it could make.

Meanwhile the 'little people' who pay our taxes are considered 'mugs' and treated with contempt. We are subjected to slurs like 'motivated by jealously' 'the politics of envy...' etc.

 

Morality is not a dirty word, it used to be the watchword of a decent society, and lack of it is at the heart of this problem.

Just because they can get away with it doesn't make it right.

 

---------- Post added 17-05-2017 at 23:19 ----------

 

Like you I saw the interview and from memory I think he acknowledged that he was well paid for the job he does and very fortunate. IIRC what the interviewer was asking him was does he consider himself wealthy, because the LP want to tax people like him a bit more.

Perhaps the fact that he does live a relatively modest and frugal life is the problem.

 

Even after the outrage caused by the MPs expenses scandal, where I believe Corbyn claims very little for expenses. The press could highlight that, and contrast it with the fact that Theresa May was recently criticised for wearing a pair of salubrious leather trousers. They didn't. They did rip into him for not having his top button of his shirt collar undone.

 

I don't think anyone has accused Theresa May's Dad of hating the British people, or taking us back to the 1970s, after she had suggested putting a cap on energy prices. No, she was looking after the "just about managing" from the "greedy energy companies."

 

I think when she became PM, her first act was to scrap maintenance grants for the poorest students. Yet in her inaugural speech as Prime Minister May complained that "If you’re a white working-class boy you’re less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university."

 

Corbyn should've said "Yes I consider myself wealthy, and will be paying more tax if I'm the PM." That would've avoided the understandable media furore.

 

I agree entirely Mister M.

 

The bias now is so blatant it's laughable.

 

I console myself with the thought it reflects how worried they are...