According to The Telegraph:

The latest edition of Tolley’s Tax Handbook contains more than twice as many pages on direct taxation as it did when Gordon Brown became Chancellor.

It’s OK though, ‘cos according to a Treasury spokesman:

“The Government takes the issue of complexity very seriously and has a good record on measures to simplify the tax system: since 1997, the Government has modernised and simplified many areas, creating a more coherent tax regime”

In case that didn’t cheer you up, another article points out that:

Homebuyers paid more than £1bn in tax during the three months to June, 30pc more than in the quarter before, despite the starting point for stamp duty being raised in March.

Remember, Gordon tells us that taxes such as these only affect the super rich, which must be why:

“Only about a quarter of sales across Britain are below the stamp duty starting point and the proportion falls to 10pc in London.”

So, when Tony goes, we’ll be rid of the man who can’t stop lying about the war, the health service, immigration etc, and be taken over by a man who wants to push the 70%+ he takes from the average earner, even higher.

Tags: blair,brown,tax
Categories: Politics
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Some people really leave a gap when they go; Alistair Cooke, John Peel, and now Steve Irwin.

I really couldn’t have put it better than one comment on the BBC

Here was a man who wasn’t afraid to live before he died.

I guess I’m not the only one who was surprised to see him reach the age of 44, but he died doing what he loved doing.
Seems like everyone, whatever they thought of his style or antics, had something good to say about him. Except moronic “shock jock” Iain Lee who called him an idiot.

Obituary.

Wanted - for murder:

Steve Irwin 1962-2006.

Tags: steve-irwin
Categories: Uncategorized
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I’ll admit, I’ve often been in favour of London’s Mayor, Ken Livingstone.
His transport policies including congestion charge, seem to be working for London, and I had to feel a bit of sympathy when the Evening Standard set him up. What I admire even more is that he stands by the courage of his convictions, which is unsual for anyone on the left these days.

But suddenly, he’s gone mental! Trevor Phillips, head of the Commission for Racial Equality, seemed to have his finger surprisingly on the pulse when he said that:

… mass immigration was changing the face of Britain, and that the costs of it could no longer be ignored. In a series of controversial statements, Mr Phillips has also criticised multiculturalism, said that Muslims who want Sharia (Muslim law) should leave Britain and that Britain is “sleepwalking to segregation” between its ethnic communities.

Well, this we already know. And the response?

Ken Livingstone has accused Trevor Phillips, Britain’s race equality chief, of becoming so right wing that he could “join the BNP”.

Categories: Politics
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