February 2010

With the recent stories in the press including today’s revelation, it’s interesting to reflect why the poll figures for the Conservatives are still very low and appear not to have shifted with the allegations.

I think the reason is, that it’s not a surprise at all. Bullying is the way I’d describe the way the state treats everyone else, from draconian smoking bans, oppressive security apparatus, illegal wars, patients treated badly in hospitals while the institution is awarded foundation status, endless taxes, etc. etc. etc. What would be astonishing is if it turned out that the working environment within the state was all sweetness and light.

As it is, I’m surprised that stories like this are not more common.

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Um. What he said…..

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We bank with HSBC, so I was interested to see this story in the BBC this morning about the Chief Executives annual pay rise. Apparently it isn’t happening because the shareholders didn’t like it. Fair enough you might think, the shareholders are the owners and they are supposed to pay attention to things like salaries.

The really interesting part of the story is buried further down, the BBC comments:

However some argue that while HSBC did not directly benefit from the rescue of the banking sector, it still benefited from the general stabilisation of the financial system by the UK government’s intervention.

…and then without batting a BBC eyelid:

Earlier this year Mr Geoghegan said he was relocating to Hong Kong.

…because of the great economic environment here no doubt. HSBC says that it currently has no plans to move it’s head office or tax domicile. So the chief executive will hang out in one place and head office will be halfway round the planet in a different time zone. I wonder how long that arrangement will last.

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After a day spent calculating January’s duty I’ve come home to discover the new series of Dr Who will be starting on April the Third. New trailer here. H/T to Appalling Strangeness for the update. He’s definitely not human, look at the size of that cranium!

On a less happy note I can recommend this as a fascinating read – in the sense that watching a horrifying car crash is fascinating.

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H/T Guy Fawkes.

Yesterday the Telegraph quietly reported that the Conservatives are planning the ‘biggest PAYE shakeup’ since the scheme began during the second world war. The idea is:

Rather than leaving employers to process different tax codes and pay income tax for employees, the new system would automatically deduct income tax and national insurance contributions directly from an employee’s gross pay as it is paid into their bank account.

Apparently various technology providers are being approached.

This is just a bit of steamlining isn’t it ? cheaper and easier for employers ? completely innocent ?

Well no. Not when you consider how it would have to work.

If PAYE was deducted directly by ‘the new system’. The money would have to go through the ‘new system’ before it reached you.

So if the brewery pays a monthly salary to Tom, Dick, and Harriet. It will send all of that money to HMRC, HMRC will take what it believes is its due and pass the remainder on to Tom and the others. There are a number of ugly little implications.

First of all, the majority of money flowing into a standard bank account would now come from the government. Most people’s income comes from employment with lesser amounts from tax credits pensions etc. Effectively, most of us would be beholden to the government for our daily bread. The level of control this would allow them puts anything the old communist states ever managed into the shade. What’s this unexplained £30 payment from your auntie Lavinia ? Why didn’t you pay income tax on it ?

Secondly, even ignoring malice, the possibility of common or garden screw up looms large. In the same story the Telegraph reports some 4.5 million workers are paying too much PAYE – one flick of a switch at HMRC and that could be 20 million workers. Not that that would ever be done deliberately would it ?

This disastrous idea comes from a collective mindset that thinks the State Should Be In Charge. The truth of the matter is that both this notion is endemic throughout Labour (of course) but also the Tories and Lib Dems. I don’t believe that any of the big three parties are on our side – they are on their side.

Things will not get better under the next government whatever it’s hue. Things will get worse.

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It’s been an exhausting week. We bottled 120 cases of beer from the gyle made earlier in the month and brewed another of Merry Andrew yesterday. The bottled beer had stopped fermenting in the cold weather but the addition of several heaters restarted it and it finished pretty much where it was expected as Velocity Best Bitter. It should be drinkable in a few weeks time. I almost regret that I can’t use the new label I’d arranged but I expect there will be other opportunities.

Then I came home to a disturbing story.

The government has had to borrow money in January for the first time since the black death.

January is generally when the Government gets a lot of it’s revenue so the story suggests that they are still spending like a crazed shopaholic with a fistful of credit cards, and that the economy is sliding back into recession again. If it ever really left in the first place. Neither Labour or the Conservatives have offered any credible plans to deal with the situation although rumours of higher taxes have floated out from Westminster occasionally. I think they will be surprised at how much further the economy could shrink with a 20% VAT rate.

I think the time has come to do a bit more than ranting on a blog, and I think the answer might well be Cromwell Day, the 20th of April. This is the day when Cromwell made his famous speech to parliament prior to chucking them out:

…It is high time for me to put an end to your sitting in this place, which you have dishonoured by your contempt of all virtue, and defiled by your practice of every vice; ye are a factious crew, and enemies to all good government; ye are a pack of mercenary wretches, and would like Esau sell your country for a mess of pottage, and like Judas betray your God for a few pieces of money.

etc.

For us, Cromwell Day would consist of shutting down the brewery completely and doing no shopping. We’d be paying no taxes on the day and would effectively be on strike. As far as I can tell it’s legal – nobody can tell us that we have to work – and if it was widely followed it might send a message.

If they don’t get the message we could always try Cromwell Week!

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…says prof. Phil Jones. That’s the Phil Jones in charge of the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, the Phil Jones who was an important author in the IPCC 4th Assessment Report, the Phil Jones who is at the centre of the climategate email dust-up.

I personally started to feel doubtful about man made global warming about 3 years ago when I finally noticed the similarities between the writing on the subject and the religious fanaticism of previous centuries. It’s always seemed to me that the more vehement supporters are of a cause, the weaker the case.

For example, nobody doubts gravity. It keeps thing stuck on the earth (more or less), it keeps the sun burning. We keep it switched on all the time. If some moonbat came up to your front door claiming that we should all stop driving to prevent gravity changing, we’d probably call an ambulance rather than the police. I doubt we’d brand him/her a ‘gravity denier’.

At the other extreme, wars have been fought over the precise meaning of the role of bread during the religious ceremony of mass. I personally doubt it there’s any self evident proof either way, and that’s the primary reason that so much blood was spilt.

Now suppose the moonbat wanted to tax us to prevent gravity changing. What would we think then ?

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Boy: Daddy – why do we have earwax ?
Daddy: (quickly looking up earwax on Wikipedia) Umm, it’s to protect your ears from water, er and er bacteria and fungus, and er to assist with lubrication….Lubrication ?

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(used with permission)

Today’s the day we find out whether or not the extra time and heaters have made any difference to our beer or whether we have a one off batch at 3.9%. If it hasn’t moved over the weekend we’ll give it a new name and sell it at Shoreham and Steyning Farmer’s markets.

Velocipede or Velociraptor ? How about a Velociraptor on a Velocipede ?

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