Oh goody, we're going to help theives and dictators buy Mercedes....

Gordon and co have found a new way to give billions of pounds of our money to the thieving, lying, grasping, no-good politicians that make up most of the world's political leaders. I wonder how much of the money intended to be "curbing global warming" will be spent on the usual collection of gold plated toilets, private jets and other toys of the 'nick it, nick it, nick it' brigade of world leaders? We might as well just buy the Mercedes ourselves and send them directly to the presidential palace. May God preserve us from these 'useful idiots.'

Drivers 'don't trust' road taxes

I'm surprised MPs even had to think about this one. It's been so obvious that car taxes have been a combination of general revenue generation alongside the hateful 'roads for the rich' policy pursued by privileged MPs that I've not known anyone who "trust what ministers say the charges pay for" for some considerable time. I've not believed it for at least fifteen years as the green justifications behind taxes are so obviously a series of great big massive lies with bells on. It's all down to what the government can get away with charging, soaking the poor and ordinary motorists with taxes which barely register against the salary (and expenses) of an MP and his or her high earning chums.

A good demonstration of this lie is when a politician says 'the polluter pays' they don't tell you what the 'polluter' happens to be paying for and little of it happens to have anything at all to do with the environment. Another is the government's current favourable taxation treatment of hybrid cars, even though their production has a higher environmental cost, they have a shorter working life than a conventional vehicle, are slower and, often as not, don't use any less fuel than an equivalent conventional model. When I bought my Toyota Yaris Verso in 2004 I checked it's figures against the supposedly green Toyota Prius. The Yaris was cheaper, faster, about the same size and used roughly the same amount of fuel, yet is taxed higher than the Prius. This has nothing whatever to do with the environment. At all. It's all a combination of money and the desire to get the great unwashed off the roads and onto busses, thus helping the really important people live their lives without interference from the rest of us.

Paying for a prescription in Tyne and Wear

After my tax credit exemption for prescription charges expired some little while ago I decided it was time to get a prescription prepayment certificate from the NHS. I didn't have the web address to hand so I did a little searching on google and found this. If you live in England, even somewhere like North East England, prescriptions cost as follows.

https://www.ppa.org.uk/ppa/ppcdd/patient.do
"The current cost is:
£28.25 for a 3-month PPC; and
£104.00 for a 12-month PPC."

If you live in Scotland, paying the same income tax, national insurance, VAT etc as those in England then prescriptions cost rather less, will cost less again from April 2010 and from April 2011 will cost nothing at all. Fair? I think not.

http://www.psd.scot.nhs.uk/doctors/prepayment-certificates.html#purchase
"How much does a PPC cost?
4 month PPC costs £13.00
12 month PPC costs £38.00"

Our politicians should make it the same for all and stop subsidising a minority of the population. The North East and other regions of England are just as impoverished as Scotland so there is no social reason to do so; it's just buying votes north of the border.

And a reply from the Department of Health

Not a meaningless, out of date, automated piece of nonsense at all. No. Really, it isn't. As Jim Royle may say: "Consultation my a**e!"

"Thank you for your email. We really appreciate the time you have taken to contact us, and we welcome your views on the future of care and support in England.

"The engagement on the future of care and support finished on 28 November 2008. A Green Paper setting out options for reform will be issued for consultation early in 2009, and we will again invite everyone to have their say on its proposals. Please continue to visit our website www.careandsupport.direct.gov.uk for more information about the care and support reform and to see what other people are saying. You can also register via the website to receive updates.
Thank you for contributing to this crucial reform agenda.

"Best wishes
The Care and Support Team
Social Care Strategy Unit
Department of Health
Room 543, Richmond House
79 Whitehall
London SW1A 2NS"

Personal Care in our old ages

A short message I've just sent to the Department of Health on their proposals for paying for personal care in the future. If you intend on living into old age, a response would be wise. CLICK HERE to see more.

"Sir/Madam
I have spent the last several minutes looking for a way to leave a comment on the consultation and have thus far been unsuccessful. If you really want people to leave comments you need a large, obvious button somewhere on the home page where someone can click and comment directly, without wading through page after page of irrelevant material. In hiding the respond function (I still have not found it) the design of this site suggests the DOH don't really want people to comment and hints that this is a shame and a publicity stunt. Please put the respond to survey function some place entirely obvious. As to the consultation: none of the options appears to make sense. The consultation appears to forget we already pay an insurance scheme called "National Insurance" ignores how the Scots pay for free personal care and fails to deal with the underlying problem: a mass of workshy wasters who don't do anything useful but do make ample use of services. If we stop paying for those who refuse to work, the problem will go away overnight."

Feeling sorry for Gordon - why|

Over the past few weeks I've found myself feeling sympathetic towards the Prime Minister, government and the Labour party in general. Much of the bad press they have had of late has not really been their fault: MPs expenses are the fault of all parties, the banking crisis and resultant recession is largely the fault of incompetent, greedy and irresponsible bankers and so on. I'm naturally left leaning but have found Labour very difficult to support, especially during the Blair years, as so many of their policies have been damaging to the working classes. Yet with all that has been going on of late, my feelings on these issues had lessened and I have felt supportive of this government, after all many of the problems we are currently experiencing are the results of policies enacted by the former Prime Minister, one Tony Blair.

Partially of course my liking of Gordon is just "thank God Tony's gone" with Gordon Brown seeming a much more straight-forward individual than his predecessor, the snake oil salesman who would say one thing then do another. The economic recession is likely to be reasonably short lived and there already signs of recovery, low key though they are.

And yet, and yet.... as a person I can see in my payslip just what harm this government has done to me and mine. Higher taxes are the least of the problems caused by this government: think student loans, think pension taxes leading to the closure of most final salary pensions, think higher energy costs caused by so called 'green' policies. Thanks to one government policy I now own HMRC around GBP1280 in overpaid tax credits and I am far from alone in this, despite having filled in every form honestly and handed them in on time: it's a flaw inherent in tax credits and has caught out millions of people.

If you've had or are planning to have any involvement in higher education this government's stupidity and greed have or will soon cost you several thousand pounds. If you're saving for retirement and do not have a public sector pension you're going to have to pay more into a pension in order to retire later on less money again thanks to this government's incompetence. If you're trying to buy your first house you're going to face an over-priced and undersized, jerry built box because this government has restricted the building of desirable homes while encouraging tatty rabbit hutches and demolishing good quality old houses.

Many of their policy decisions you can forgive as genuine mistakes that anyone could have made, but their decisions around higher-education, pensions and housing demonstrate a flagrant disregard for the people of this country. An attitude of "I'm all right Jack, pull the ladder up!" that has put the needs of working people behind the whims and desires of a few in the government and management classes. They need to be removed from government and replaced with someone who can cater for the needs of working people. I find I now feel little sympathy for Gordon and company, who are largely responsible for a long list of problems.

If you needed another reason to not buy a BMW

When BMW sacked its agency staff today it gave them just one hour notice. While reducing a work force at present is not altogether unexpected it seems a little strange to only give ones staff one hours notice. When compared to Nissan's handling of its own redundancies a few weeks earlier it shows BMW in a very bad light. http://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/search/4109097.Jobs_fair_aimed_at_Nissan_workers/
Buy something else, especially if its made in the UK.