91Èȱ¬

Fuel for the inquest

Maybe they couln't afford fuel to get to the booth

I think it reflects the true feeling of the country as a whole - it needs and longs for change such is the nature of the British beast, even though the alternatives may be untested and unpredictable in terms of performance. Times they are a changin'

Clive

What about the 91Èȱ¬ inquest? What on EARTH was going on with cowboy Vine and the stupid cartoon gimmick with regard to London.

The coverage today was astonishingly peurile.

Nick,

With the whole issue over the 10p tax rate, The decline in the economy which Mr Brown prepared to plan for, How much of the results are due to local policy rather than national?

I'm sure alot of very capable labour counciler's have lost their seats due to the failure of the current government to secure the confidance of the British Public.

It is quite simple. For years both Tories and Labour have felt free to ignore their respective core voters whilst they go in search of those key swing voters in marginals.

To do this they head resolutely towards the middle ground, knowing that they can ignore their core voters without any penalty. Why? Because with no proportionality in our electoral system to worry about, it simply does not matter whether the Labour voter of Merthyr Tydfil turns out to vote or not. Or the Tory voter in leafy Surrey.

The focus groups, the research, the effort, the policies even are driven by the need to please this narrow set of people.

No wonder people feel disenfranchised. Because they are. The statistic of higher turning away from Labour in their heartlands shows that the worm is beginning to turn, but it is not enough.

Anyone interested in the survival of our democracy and of pluralism and responsiveness in our national politics must see that PR is absolutely essential.

There are plenty of options to achieve proportionality, and there can be a discussion about that - oh and please a rational discussion based on what is best for the people and not best for the vested interests within the parties.

But the existing self-serving denial of democracy and debate is not an option.

After listening to the Labour Politicians on the news media vowing to listen to the electorate after the disastrous local election results, I wander why they were'nt listening much earlier? Even more disconcertingly they seem to think kind words and sympathy (not actions) are going to sedate the British public into giving them a second chance. Lets just recap the areas where Gordon Brown has had a hand in hitting public pockets hard, its called Taxation.
1 Council Tax 2 Fuel Tax 3 Road Tax 4 Insurance Tax (up from 2.5% to 17.5%) 5 Pay Awards not paid in full (Police, Nurses etc.) 6 Using Taxpayers money (£100Bil) to Bail out Northern Rock - Further £50 Billion to bail out Banks - who caused our collective misery. Not to mention the loss of personal data by the Inland Revenue, and the DVLA. 7 Stealth taxes - for the last 11 years Mr Brown has plundered all our pockets, including our Pensions, hidden taxes such as non reclaimable VAT, abolishing Married persons alowance, flight and departure taxes. Mr Brown has a great deal to answer for at a time when MP's allowances are deemed un-accountable to the taxpayer by the Labour Speaker. The Great British public have just democratically put the Governement on notice, we are YOUR BOSS, and we have had enough !!

My mind was made up as soon as I saw my first pension slip after Mr Brown got rid of 10p tax. I am now paying £38 a month more on tax on my pension. Petrol prices are going up but why government does not want to curb tax on these increses? From now on I will vote any party in my area who has a better chance of defeating Mr Brown.

As an accountant, I remember listening to the budget 2007 live on Radio 5 live in my car.

After about 6 miles further down the road, I had calculated that a single person earning about £18,000 or less would be worse off as a result of the abolition of the 10% tax band. Whilst those earners in the £ 35,000 region would be considerably better off as a result of the drop in the basic rate band.

What absolutely baffles me is that if it took the accountants about 10 minutes to realise the effect of this, then how in blazes has it taken so long for the politicians to realise this.

I would however want to correct some myths about how much has actually been lost. As a result of the loss of the 10% band, the actual tax hit (for non state pensioners) is no more than £ 223, which is £ 4.29 per week. As a result of the increase in personal allowance for single people, this hit is reduced to £ 181, which is £ 3.48 per week. This is all providing that you are a single person under 65 with no other benefits/allowances available to you.

For people in receipt of pensions, then, assuming that their gross total income does not exceed £ 21,800, then they will actually be better off in 2008/09 as the increase in the age related personal allowance will save tax of £ 296, whilst the loss of the 10% bracket will cost them £ 223. Therefore, all pensioners over the age of 65, will, in fact, be better off by around £ 1.40 per week. Hardly a fortune, but nonetheless pensioners over 65 are not losers from these budget changes.

I don't understand how OAP123 is paying £ 38 tax MORE on his pension per month. Unless of course he has other income, which is being taxed via the tax code allocated to his pension. All pensioners over 65 are better off, any pensioner under 65 (early retiree) can only be a maximum of £ 15.08 worse off exclusively as a result of the budget changes.

Last night Brown paid the price for record fuel prices (20% higher than this time last year), for record gas and electricity prices, for ever increasing weekly shopping bills, for people's perception of economic doom and gloom, whether real or not, for record numbers of seemingly uncontrolled immigration, for record levels of political arrogance at almost all levels, for record levels of corporate insolvencies and personal bankruptcies. The nation is being slowly asphyxiated by the policies of this administration. Particularly financially. There is not one person in this country who does not feel "ripped off" somewhere, somehow on a weekly basis.

To quote Cromwell:

"You have sat too long for any good you have been doing lately ... Depart, I say; and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go!"

We pay nearly 70% tax on fuel. We get a barrel a lot cheaper then other countries due to buying power. Most of this fuel duty goes back to the treasurey. Something like 1/5 is spent on roads...

So why do we pay so much, why don't the government cut duty? Greedy and do not listen to the people...

10p tax, people moaned, ignored. It was only when the MPs did not agree with Mr Brown did they then say they listened to the people. No they were scared of their own MPs.

Then the have the audacity to want to slap on an extra 2p. Fuel gone up from 92p to 124p a litre for me, probably higher next week...

We seem to just be loosing money all the time with this government now, who does not listen.

Then there immigration, we should have quotas. That said a lot of Polish are now going back as getting expensive here! Says it all...

Interesting site for petrol comparisons, info on fuel tax and changes over the years:

Part of the truth is that Gordon Brown thought that the proposed cut in income tax to 20% would attract the middle England, middle class, middle income earners when he called an election whereas the abolition of the basic rate would not kick in until after the election which he expected to call and win last year. Problem is he chickened out of calling the election and now the 10% tax issue has come home to roost. The voters saw through this wheeze which the Cabinet was not big enough to kill off. The man is simply duplicitous to say now that he made a mistake. When exactly did he make that mistake? Last year? Why has it taken him so long to admit it? Does he think voters are stupid? Perhaps not anymore.
Now all he can say is that he has listened and feels voters' pain, which he patently doesn't care about. What he feels is his own pain. He says he is going to tour the country, but hold on, didn't he spend months touring the country before he was anointed Labour leader? Does someone with such a short memory deserve to be PM?
Further trouble is that he personally as Chancellor is responsible for the economic policies which mean that the Government has no scope to ease the pain which he recognises.
He is simply the wrong person on both counts to lead the Government. Labour can either ditch him now or take two years learning that they should have done so.

Very interesting to hear Gordon Brown setting out his stall to solve the problems of care for the elderly, when 12 years ago he set in motion his pension robbing strategy which must have netted him by now the equivalent of £100 billion or so.
How handy all this would be in the hands of those to whom it rightly belongs; the very people he says he is going to help!

Gordon, where are you going to find a solution? You are the problem