I wish we had the problems of a Bush/Republican administration. GDP growth
8%(?), interest rates around 1%, low inflation, low taxes, decisions taken in the national interest( steel tariffs, Kyoto) unlike Blair who has his own personal Scottish dream of being president of the Socialist state of the EU, with the UK ( England in particular) being told what to do by Berlin and Paris. The Republicans are in power in California as a result of Democrat politicians(Labour/Liberal) spending infinitely more than the tax revenue could provide (just like the UK?) and the voters deciding that professional power seeking party politicians are a liability and that a degree of reality is required over local taxation(council tax). Regards Capitol
Arnie the Governator is tasked with sorting out the mess that he created. Apart from screwing up their energy purchases, he also rode rough shod over a subject close to the hearts of most Californians - their vehicular transport.
While this discussion is not about California, the parallels with Blair's modus operandi are remarkably similar.
"PoP" wrote | However, those without children will have an expectation that when | they grow old the state will provide either/both services and/or | pension in their old age.
I can assure you that I have very little expectation on that front :-(
Income is NOT related to asset value. What the council tax is, currently, is an asset tax.
Lets say you collect fine art. Your whole life is dedicated to it. Yiu have a million quids worth of pictures. The government decides that you should pay 3 grand a year in 'tax' on it.
Lets take the revrse. You are a 'traveller'. You use the roads, you dump rubbish where it pleases you. You use public toilets, and get free water from teh council. Your kids attend the local schools, you use the doctors and hospitals, You are constantly wasting police time, but you DON'T OWN A HOUSE. So you pay nothing towards any of it.
Provding a deep disconnect between those who pay and those who use, is a very dangerous ploy. Up to a point we accept a certain amount of it as a way of reducing the (equally socially dangerous) gap bteween rich and poor, but to extend it further to asset tax is to actually strike a blow at the heart of capitalism, the ability to acquire and hold without penalty capital assets.
We have seen this principle eroded, first by inheritance tax, that means that no one except the National Trust or a undying corportae body can own any of the great old houses. Then we had capital gains tax, that equated the selling of assets with private income. Except strangely in the case of ones own house...(too many votahs owner occupiers maybe?) ..and now council tax....based on someones estimate of what your house MIGHT be worth...but if you bought it 60 yars ago, and have no income at all, the government and council are going to force you to sell it because you can't afford the rates...
In an ageing population, asset rich and income poor, this is going to be as disastrous as the Poll Tax was.
Ofcourse, its all fitted in nicely with the Labour ideal of encouraging class consciousness, and taxcing anyone wioth any visible sign of having more dosh than the next man, ruinning it throgh teh government coffers, to both pay off tyeh votahs, and also to ensure that NOTHING gets dine EXCEPT bty the central government and its petty bureaucratic monions oin teh councils - and lest face it, which coubncils will NOT get extra funding, those in safe labour areas (bt low council tax rates) and those in tory strongholds who it will be argued can squeeze more from their constituents anyway. No, funds will go strictly to margiunal seats so as to buy the votes...and teh bandwagon of increase centralisation, incvreased bureacracy, and ever more of the (dominsihing, because no one will want to work for money anymore) GDP circulatimng through the central coffers.
In short, a countyry such as we almost had in teh 60's when anyone capable of contributing to anything buggered off to work in the states, helping it to become the No 1 economy in the world. Leaving this country to languish in strikes, whingeing, and quietly staggering downhill to the inevitable - Thatcherism.
Its about time teh voters woke up to the fact that neiher of the two major parties have ANY interest in the population of this country. One is trying to gain power to enforce a system of government that failed everywhere it has been tried, and the other is merely concerned with lining its own pockets and as many of the pockes of as few voters as is necessary to win the election.
Don't forget it is all financed by huge leverage on a national debt that probably is 30-50 times its GDP. One huge house of cards that might one day come falling down.
SWMBO remarked that all politicains from all ages seem to share one common characteristic, they don't have any common sense, vision, or comprehension of what is really going on.
We are where we are. The reason why the public are up in arms about the council tax is PRIMARILY because of the huge increases.
Of course a fairer system would be possible, but that is not the main point at issue here right now. The main point is only that pensioners and other on low incomes cannot AFFORD to pay these excessive increases. Esoteric arguments about how the actual bands are calculated or allocated will not change this simple fact at all right now, though changes in future may well bring about a fairer system long term. The fact is, the council will be demanding a certain sum of money and if this is not paid, then the council tax payer is in default.
Exactly. It is driving the elderly and retired straight into the tory vote.
Or lib dem vote.
Frankly I am not unhappy about that, as Labour seem nearly as corrupt and seriously more incompetent than the tories, and definitely more dangerous in their zeal to destroy anything that has worked for centuries, and replace it with yet more middle management office spik.
'The Office' bears a starling resemblance to the Labour party.
Not too long ago, I was helping a relative clear out some junk etc from their new house. We'd hired a van to take the stuff to the tip (Fylde coats), and not knowing about the new rules. Upon arriving I was told that I needed a permit to use a van. I discussed this with the attendant, and the upshot was that I could make 5 trips a day, every day, with my Volvo estate full to bursting and they wouldn't bat an eyelid, but turn up once in a van with a couple of rubble sacks and I wouldn't be permitted entrance. Bloody stupid really.
Interesting! I have a Freelander which has a dirty great advertisement for my handyman business on the spare wheel cover at the back, so it's not like they couldn't make a case for me being a business user. Each time I go down our local tip I expect to be accosted by one of the tipsies giving me verbal diarrhrea about how I can't dispose of my (own) rubbish because I'm obviously a trade customer who has to pay.
And yet not once have the tipsies sought to question me. One of these days I'll be disposing of some old carpets or some such for a customer and they will pounce on me.
Interesting! I have a Freelander which has a dirty great advertisement for my handyman business on the spare wheel cover at the back,
Our disco carrys a Scout symbol (I'm a Scouter) on its spare cover, once we were asked if it was Scout rubbish (wasn't) and several times when it was a trailer full of old tentage etc nothing....
PoP, look-up uk-lro @ koan, a lot of like minded l/r owning diyers there!
Even in corruption, Tories did tend to hold their hands up and say, fair cop, guv, when they'd been found out, whereas the Labour lot never do. They always weasel their way out of any accusation, viz that awful Margaret Hodge on Question Time last night. Look what it took to see of Stephen Byers!
This Government is nothing like I imagined a Labour government would be when I voted Labour in 1997. How the Blairites have totally changed (and lost) the ethos of the Labour movement. I voted Lib Dem last time and will do so next.
Thereby guaranteeing Labour another term in office, aided by the votes of non-taxpaying 16-year olds.
Get real - it was the SDP who kept Mrs T in power for so long (plus the political suicidal tendencies of Old Labour). If you don't like 'New' Labour then eat humble pie and vote for the Tories.
Shame you can't give them a negative vote, certainly preferable to having to vot4e for the opposition, and I'm sure the turnout would improve if 'none of the above' was an option.
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