A View From Middle England - Conservative with a slight libertarian touch - For Christian charity and traditional belief - Free Enterprise NOT Covert Corporatism

Bishop Mark Lawrence gets accused and abused

Katherine Jefferts Schori likens godly bishop to dictator and mass murderer

Chris Huhne finally faces up to his demons

Former cabinet minister faces jail as he admits guilt of perjury crime

HS2 is high speed to the shops in Sheffield

High speed trains to London but no further! HS2 hits buffers before Europe.

David Cameron sits on EU wall

All things to all EU people - doing the hokey cokey until 2018!

Rotherham by-election gives main parties a kick

Respect for the three main parties decreases as UKIP and others rise

Underemployment now felt by 3 million at least

More workers would like more hours but can't get them

Wife to occupy central role at central bank

New bank governor's wife Diana will speak her mind and blow George's

Bank of England to get Canadian bank chief

George Osborne takes a maple leaf out of Canada's central bank books

UKIP offers a political HS2 for disaffected Tories

UKIP's Nigel Farage reacts to David Cameron's quips

Rotherham Council in Stasi Style Crackdown

Social Services remove children accusing couple of being "UKIP racists"!

Showing posts with label Taxpayers Alliance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Taxpayers Alliance. Show all posts

Monday, September 29, 2008

Free enterprise is dead!

Yes, if the Congress votes to prop up dodgy-dealing bankers but not other business types. Free enterprise is over. Partially-supported (by dragooned taxpayers) enterprise is in. This means that those industries and/or companies that various governments deem so important from the state's point of view will be saved (executives included?) and those that are not will perish on the economic vine.

There are some good ideas for the future floating around. One is to tax bonus-gatherers at high rates and put the tax into a fund for safeguarding against such events as we see now. Whatever happens, the future will be different from the past.

If we take the Bradford & Bingley, they were probably quick to put defaulters into bankruptcy. How come the taxpayer can't put the B&B into bankruptcy? Sauce for the goose, but not the gander? We are told that bank failures will be bad for the economy. I'm now of the opinion that this is hogwash and is only propaganda by the bank owners. They have put themselves above the law, above economic norms and above the democratic system. In the UK, we are told that depositors will suffer. Well, they know or should know that £35,000 is ring-fenced. If they have their lifesavings in one bank, then they have only themselves to blame in the event of a bank failure.

Well run banks should not suffer failure, but those that took the Las Vegas route are falling like nine-pins. The way the American and British governments talk, it is as if ALL banks will disappear. That is surely absurd. Just like any other market, one bank will come in to mop up the business of the failed company.

The only asset the taxpayer is getting is a vast bundle of toxic loans. It is no wonder that many around the world are rightly questioning this bail-out. If these people are bailed out then they should be held accountable. I'm glad to see the FBI is investigating. Maybe we will find out what really went on.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Northern Rock 'n Roll

Robert Peston of the BBC reports that Northern Rock has made a £500 million loss but has made a sterling effort in paying back some of the taxpayers' money quicker than expected. Does it really matter if Northern Rock declares losses or gains as if it were still a bank in the private sector? I don't think so. The outfit is only fit for staying alive so long as it owes money to us, the taxpayers. The Government basically drained the lifeblood out of it. The business survives like some confined creature that has a starring role in Doctor Who. We'll keep on its good side until it is time to say "Exterminate! Exterminate!"

Friday, March 07, 2008

Who is worse at getting the bunce for nowt?

MPs are an odd lot. They are, in the main, secretive about how much money they slosh around in the way of expenses. Not needing to reveal what they spent £249 on, getting housing allowance on homes to pay for mortgages, etc, etc. But that doesn't stop them talking about others. MPs on the Treasury Select Committee have criticised HM Revenue and Customs for giving senior staff big bonus increases in the last tax year. The bonuses went up by an average of 60% during a year when complaints about tax credits rose and VAT processing targets were missed.

Now it is the job of this committee to look at how HMRC is getting on. And some MPs are very good at dissecting the information before the. One MP, who isn't into dodgy dealings, is Vince Cable. He was the acting LibDem leader that everyone thought should be leader!

He says "With millions of personal records lost, a tax credit system in chaos and the debacle of Northern Rock, why on earth does the Treasury think it is appropriate to increase staff bonuses by 60%?" Good question! I'd say because they are into the New Labour quango culture of "I get my bonus on good days and bad days!" The answer a spokesman for HM Revenue and Customs gave was, "In line with the wider civil service, bonuses are paid to encourage and reward performance and to enable HMRC to improve its service to taxpayers and the government." No mention of the crap year they've had.

Cable says also, "It is clear that the days of prudence in the Treasury are well and truly over." They are indeed. Gordon Brown got rid of her (Prudence) when she started asking difficult questions!

If MPs as a whole could get their House in order (expenses-wise) then they would be better placed to criticise. However, we can't let HMRC get away with thinking that taxpayers' money is an easy commodity to squander or personally use as they see fit!

Monday, October 08, 2007

£1,000 for a nurse's shift!

Yes, that's what one crazy outfit masquerading as an NHS Trust has done! North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple recruited a specialist paediatric nurse at £115.65 an hour. It paid £983 for an eight-and-a-half hour shift on New Year's Eve. How do we know. Because of the Freedom of Information Act. This piece of legislation is probably one of the few that New Labour can be proud of. The funny thing is that this very act is helping to disclose the folly of much of the mismanagement going on today in the Health Service and elsewhere.

But before we get carried away thinking the nurse got much of this money, we should remember it nearly all goes into the pockets of the agency bosses. As the Taxpayers' Alliance says, "This data confirms the financial folly of employing agency staff rather than permanent staff. This strategy always looks like it will save money but actually ends up costing more."

What sort of accountant recommends this nonsense? Not one working for the public interest, that's certain!