Tuesday 29 June 2010

Highway Robbery...


John Palmer is perhaps one the most famous or should that be infamous characters in our national history…

Who?

Well we all know him by his real name Richard or Dick Turpin……he used John Palmer (Palmer being his mothers maiden name) as an alias to avoid detection by the forces of law and order of the time.

The name Dick Turpin has become synonymous with highway robbery because according to history this notorious highwayman’s exploits led him to becoming one of the most wanted men in England.

Such were his alleged exploits that one could almost believe he was the only man robbing people at the time.

The truth is somewhat different alas, he was one of many of such ilk, nevertheless the reality of the highwayman who takes your hard earned wealth from your pocket is still alive and well today in the form of taxation by government.

The recent budget proved this.

What has struck me though is the total lack of critical attitude to government taxation; very few commentators, MP’s, MSM, the majority of people n Britain, if any at all are up in arms at the level and scope of modern day taxation.

Why is this so?

I know I’m not alone in feeling angry at the levels of direct and indirect taxation but to me, what fills me with rage is the mentality or state of mind of both taxpayers (who obediently acquiesce) and the mindset of entitlement from ministers who take it from our pockets.

The burden of taxation continues to rise not fall…..even the recent budget increased overall taxation. The percentage of our income and capital taken is shockingly huge….the TPA calculates that ‘tax freedom day’ the day on which we stop working for the State and start working for ourselves was 30th May this year.

In other words we work for five months for the State before we even get to earn for ourselves!

Feels like longer……

Put another way, before we spend a single pound of our income, between 35% to 55% of what we earn is stripped from us, and its going up next year with the NI rises that come into effect from April. Then we have Council Tax imposed on us to supposedly fund local services as well as the licence fee which is another form of mandatory taxation. Of what remains, on the majority of purchases (excluding energy, food, books, etc) 17.5% is tacked on, which will now rise to 20%, that’s one fifth of the price that is added to the true cost of the goods and services we choose to buy!

But even on energy we pay hidden government imposed levies (thanks to the religion of global warming) and this will get worse under this governments misguided energy policy.

Then on essential items like petrol and diesel, around 65% of the cost of every drop we buy is duty and VAT that goes straight to the government. One cannot even turn to drink now as the duty on this now is so extortionate you’d need a week’s wages just to go out on a Friday night with friends.

These are just the very basic examples; there are countless others readers could no doubt add. And don’t forget to factor in the hidden cost of the huge bureaucracy the ever expanding machinery of government needs to administer this financial three-ringed circus.

The principle of taxation was to provide basic public necessities; people accept fair taxation in return for, transport infrastructure, good local governance, the defence of the Realm, defence of the Queens peace though law and order, the provision for the desperate and the needy, whether temporary or permanent.

But the moral decay of the last 13 years has left us bankrupt and with a prevailing mindset that believes that government can solve any problem and just needs more and more of our money in order to do so, we have seen the state balloon in size and its appetite for our cash is gargantuan, yet it still wants more.

This is the clearest demonstration of wasteful, lazy and overbearing governance. Of authoritarian, paternalist, control freakery that sees our money taken then used to bribe the lazy and indolent, the gullible and feckless so self serving politicians can enjoy the trappings and office that go with the power they wield over us.

Where is the outrage? Where is the deeper thought that leads people to question why we have allowed government-by-consent to be transformed into electoral dictatorship? Where are the people who are standing up and demanding that government only takes what is needed to fund the essentials and nothing more? The failure to do this has allowed government to absorb our money and fritter it away on wheezes and trivialities. It is utter insanity that the government gives money to groups to fund their ability to campaign for the government to spend our money on their special interests. It is disgraceful that we indirectly fund charities and associations that we may choose not to support, through government grants and hand outs.

Just think how much better off we would be if we kept more of our own money and decided for ourselves how and where to spend it. Think how much better the goods and services we could buy would be if driven by competition amongst the companies and sole traders whom we decide to spend our money with. Think how many more jobs would be created to service the needs of a wealthier population, in turn reducing the need for state help and therefore the need to tax us so much. Consider, given our natural generosity, how much more money worthy charities would collect if we could better afford to contribute. Consider how much more free we would be with a smaller and less intrusive money grabbing state, and consider how much happier we could be if we were able to make more decisions for ourselves.

Having thought about that, now ask yourself, why do we tolerate the status quo? Why do we not take back power and decision making for ourselves, rather than leave it in the hands of incompetent and elitist self serving politicians? Politicians who, despite having billions and billions of pounds of our money to hand in recent years, and billions more in the coming years, have and will manage to spend it all with little to show for it?

Billions more has been borrowed on top of all the taxation they have collected, and that too has also been squandered, and all by people who have contrived to leave this country deep in debt, now necessitating the picking of our pockets to harvest yet more of our meager incomes to repair the damage.

The prevailing attitude is one of ‘you have money so we are taking it’. There is no sense of regret or apology from the privileged elite who govern us for doing so.

Quite the opposite in fact…..

Such behaviour is ludicrously described as ‘progressive’ and ‘fair’. It is nothing of the sort.

It is highway robbery……

But at least with Dick Turpin you know what you were in for............

Because, he at least had the decency to wear a mask.


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3 comments:

  1. A very convincing discussion. (Particularly the point about tax on fuel.)
    Which services would you cut in order to make "work for ourselves day" happen a little earlier in the year?

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  2. good question; you'll find the answer here:

    http://thescepticalsceptic.blogspot.com/2009/12/if-i-ruled-worldwell-britain-anyway.html

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  3. Good answer - well some of it is starting to come true (well the identity cards bit), and our "deputy prime minister" is now asking the country for "ideas" - presumably because he daren't voice his own.
    I hope he reads your blog.

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