tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7667420344421365422024-03-06T08:09:27.265+00:00Middle Aged DadThe thoughts of a grumpy old git who has become stuffed to the gills with the peurile actions of politicains, spivs, banks, bureaucrats and others that have basically screwed up a great country. Oh and I loathe the EU.Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.comBlogger132125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-36013326290426012572011-03-14T11:18:00.003+00:002011-03-14T11:25:34.509+00:00Kitchen DesignFollowing a small series of post and discussions on Mark wadsworth's blog about good kitchen design, here is my tuppenyworth. Personally I reckon the previous examples were a bit too - urban? Here is our version of a kitchen in a house in the countryside. It is an 'action shot'. I was engaed in making toad int he hole, with roast potatoes, sauted carrots and cabbage with onion gravy.<br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib1vewlPEjrcEvO_hAe6spFV3caFqn_-p2_4H9mBqFhzbIlePFn6Im_vn4XVKx32A54EDD7bLDeJG_gfa8okXU8j-EBrTOg4Mk_wrnU8xaC28THO3cNw29I1Fwr9MWTVcKU3ajPet1qQQ/s1600/Varrious+14032011+005.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib1vewlPEjrcEvO_hAe6spFV3caFqn_-p2_4H9mBqFhzbIlePFn6Im_vn4XVKx32A54EDD7bLDeJG_gfa8okXU8j-EBrTOg4Mk_wrnU8xaC28THO3cNw29I1Fwr9MWTVcKU3ajPet1qQQ/s320/Varrious+14032011+005.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583894124272634242" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuDOHoogt1meRV_Pf_pfTz28HoLoAS6DdCSIphlxiZ-V0mM2ZEg1eYTgSYiYyRGXKrn7-LSjlBdPEwe_HRZwrN248w1_8K0q1_aG1tf_ch4O5DdNclVVeVLSB2ceQXKk7a_iM8vz93zW0/s1600/Varrious+14032011+004.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuDOHoogt1meRV_Pf_pfTz28HoLoAS6DdCSIphlxiZ-V0mM2ZEg1eYTgSYiYyRGXKrn7-LSjlBdPEwe_HRZwrN248w1_8K0q1_aG1tf_ch4O5DdNclVVeVLSB2ceQXKk7a_iM8vz93zW0/s320/Varrious+14032011+004.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583894118498445282" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhigp0UITtOhzZ8kIEaxkgl1iNobrRoM3desJYaYmdB5NZTkjxihkoM0FAPpCI-zvRqVZ3DVFsZyCBF-6_kIXFOkfST7S_xMXUzeDOd0wxGkGdmC_FpUrdR3pQ4_BznGkLIvS5OEW_xMPo/s1600/Varrious+14032011+006.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhigp0UITtOhzZ8kIEaxkgl1iNobrRoM3desJYaYmdB5NZTkjxihkoM0FAPpCI-zvRqVZ3DVFsZyCBF-6_kIXFOkfST7S_xMXUzeDOd0wxGkGdmC_FpUrdR3pQ4_BznGkLIvS5OEW_xMPo/s320/Varrious+14032011+006.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5583894112787895026" /></a><br />Kitchen design....Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-26088137638746239092011-01-02T14:39:00.002+00:002011-01-02T15:43:14.951+00:00"Facilities"....<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7tPsir18fyMg9dy8MQrkFlCdsnxvBZG-OnUoZma9Tp9pOmj9JfAz3tOq7mi0DOTFXud2qmh46XUHi1oXOw_X_fI1P9ZVpmn-Ti-3HxYTj7kwPaqEG_kFZeF9UIk2vCOmzdcHh7l7JoXU/s1600/Blogging+spots+003.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7tPsir18fyMg9dy8MQrkFlCdsnxvBZG-OnUoZma9Tp9pOmj9JfAz3tOq7mi0DOTFXud2qmh46XUHi1oXOw_X_fI1P9ZVpmn-Ti-3HxYTj7kwPaqEG_kFZeF9UIk2vCOmzdcHh7l7JoXU/s400/Blogging+spots+003.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557612652801671442" /></a><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOyd9LsCniaosUjesQ-tRiJmwW26QiUL3PWeJv-TuNXGcaIZzrQIYMp9ub3Q_zZV7lZWygDDyPy5GtW_yBQ99yC8ZIEmxDPjBLL8oqjUVkk1wiDtG_J-kZJHl7XpGy2eHA3pAeI7IcqXo/s1600/Diva+Gearbox+Rebuild+002.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOyd9LsCniaosUjesQ-tRiJmwW26QiUL3PWeJv-TuNXGcaIZzrQIYMp9ub3Q_zZV7lZWygDDyPy5GtW_yBQ99yC8ZIEmxDPjBLL8oqjUVkk1wiDtG_J-kZJHl7XpGy2eHA3pAeI7IcqXo/s400/Diva+Gearbox+Rebuild+002.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5557598792374098978" /></a><br /><br />and/or...<br /><br /><br /><br /><br />As requested....Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-3716092093125900762010-10-26T12:09:00.000+01:002010-10-26T12:10:25.741+01:00House Price Crash....<div style="width:425px" id="__ss_5557110"><strong style="display:block;margin:12px 0 4px"><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/TheSqueeze/house-price-crash-presentation" title="House price crash presentation">House price crash presentation</a></strong><object id="__sse5557110" width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=housepricecrashpresentation-101025121235-phpapp01&stripped_title=house-price-crash-presentation&userName=TheSqueeze" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"/><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"/><embed name="__sse5557110" src="http://static.slidesharecdn.com/swf/ssplayer2.swf?doc=housepricecrashpresentation-101025121235-phpapp01&stripped_title=house-price-crash-presentation&userName=TheSqueeze" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><div style="padding:5px 0 12px">View more <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/">presentations</a> from <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/TheSqueeze">TheSqueeze</a>.</div></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-74748553112618297832010-10-24T20:10:00.002+01:002010-10-24T20:12:48.510+01:00Proper Money - The Cobden Centre<a href="http://www.cobdencentre.org/2010/05/what-is-money/">null</a>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-26053803133779913902010-03-30T14:40:00.003+01:002010-03-30T14:43:57.022+01:00The Truth Really isn't in Them, is it?<span style="font-family:verdana;">A friend of mine, in the FS business, writes occasional articles for the trade press, who frequently censor them. Here's a recent piece I thought you'd like to share, in its unedited form.</span><br /><br /><br /><div align="justify"><em>For the last six months I have been involved in a dreary correspondence with Paul, Lord Myners, via my own MP, regarding Myners June 2009 submission to the Joint Committee on Human Rights regarding the surreptitious removal of the 15-year longstop defence.<br /><br />Readers may recall that the Committee decided that the matter was not of sufficient importance and this was primarily due to Myners advising them that, “The FOS rules were consulted on extensively before they came into force on 1 December 2001”. He also stated, “The Limitation Act 1980 does not apply to the FOS, a point that was discussed and considered when the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 was being debated by Parliament.”<br /><br />This January he again chose to re-write history and complained, “My letter (to the Committee) does not refer either to Parliament debating the removal of the longstop or to the FSA entering into extensive consultation on the issue.”<br /><br />His latest missive, dated 14 March, asserts that, “The FSA consulted, in parallel, on the detailed rules including those covering the Ombudsman. I note, for example, that the question of time limits for making a complaint to the FOS was discussed in the joint FSA/FOS consultation paper CP33.”<br /><br />The words ‘truth’ and ‘economical’ do not do justice to this ongoing fiction and he must gratified by the knowledge that non-elected Ministers cannot be deselected or pushed out by the electorate.<br /><br />A scrutiny of his various points is clearly in order. CP33 did indeed consult on time limits for complaints but not only was the 15-year longstop never discussed, it was not even mentioned. The feedback statement, CP49, was published in May 2000 and contained an important proposal at s173. “Alignment with the English law of limitations in respect of the time limit for making a complaint to the Scheme after the act or omission giving rise to the matter in question.”<br /><br />Again, there is no specific mention of the longstop, but a crystal clear proposal that the FOS time limits would reflect those of the court system.<br /><br />A policy statement was published in December 2000 and, no surprise, no specific mention was made of the longstop. A subtle wording change emerged at s1.13 where it stated, “As envisaged in CP49, the time limits for bringing a complaint to the FOS broadly mirror the law of limitation in respect of bringing actions to court.”<br /><br />The question is, are we dealing with semantics or are we being subjected to downright lies? No doubt you will draw your own conclusions.<br /><br />So, did Lord Myners tell the Joint Committee that the disapplication of the Limitation Act was discussed and considered by Parliament when debating the bill? Yes. Did this actually happen? No.<br /><br />Did Lord Myners state that the FSA consulted extensively on the FOS scheme rules before they came into force? Yes. Did this actually happen? Yes and no – the FSA did consult and as we have seen they did propose that the time limit rules would mirror those within English Law but they did not ever mention the removal or retention of the longstop. Furthermore, within the minutes of the FSA Board Meeting, dated 18 September 2003, the then CEO, John Tiner, stated unequivocally, “”We did not consult on having a 15 year limitation period when DISP was consulted on.”<br /><br />None of this is accidental. Financial firms have been duped and maybe even laughed at. A rich vein of disingenuity can be located throughout this unsavoury episode. Untruths, vagueness, hints, suggestions, subtle adjustments and outright porkies have all been on display. Is it any wonder that such people are despised?<br /><br />At a recent meeting, Michael Fallon MP Chairman of the Treasury Sub-committee expressed disquiet regarding the removal of advisers rights. These verbal shenanigans should be of equal concern and it is to be hoped that Lord Myners is called before them to explain his elastic terminology.</em></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-25651702425745313802010-03-15T19:59:00.002+00:002010-03-15T20:00:51.238+00:00Ed - Call me Goebbels - Balls<span style="font-family:verdana;">Someone pointed </span><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1062940/I-obeying-orders---Schools-Secretary-Eddie-Balls-dressed-German-officer.html"><span style="font-family:verdana;">this</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> out to me. Excellent. Thanks</span>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-21272622750816252292010-03-02T23:24:00.006+00:002010-03-02T23:48:26.457+00:00Anti Politics<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">All my life I have been interested in politics, but not truly interested, if you know what I mean. Look, I am very engaged with the fight for continuing freedom from the dark forces of the left and the right, especially the left. By I cannot be arsed with 'politicking' as you might say. All that endless <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">manoeuvring</span> and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">sitting</span> in committees and plotting about power. But, in all that time my <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">adversaries</span>, who have been mostly lefties, have been not just willing to do all this, but actually find it fun.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Perhaps this is the problem in the lefty vs freedom battle. Freedom is essentially anti politics. It has lots of stuff much more important and more fun and creative to do than sitting about in endless committees not really achieving anything real. There is no enthusiasm for politics, unlike with the lefties who find it all utterly absorbing.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">It would seem then that freedom is always on the defensive. It has to stay alert for the next assault and seek to stop it. Dead. Trouble is this takes time away of doing more important stuff and it is very wearying. You just want them to go away and leave you right alone. It is far easier to keep on the attack if it is your enthusiasm than it is to defend against that energy if it is not.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">This will always be the problem for the major party of freedom in the UK, the Tories. Not that the Tories are very freedom conscious, they are too <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">latently</span> oligarchical for that. They exist as the only major not politics political party. But if they stay as they are now as a sort Labour Right it will get harder and harder for them to achieve electoral success as there is no clear <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">differentiator</span> between them and New Labour. To be successful they may have to move more to the right, or in my terms further to the centre, to more freedom, or bluntly towards Libertarianism. This philosophy, which is in itself a sort of anti- philosophy - should take us towards the top of the circle, to freedom, and let the lefties and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">righties</span> slide down each side into irrelevance.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">And if this is the case and it does succeed what's next? Where does the effective opposition come from? Well, maybe it will come from an alliance between the parties of right and left. After all they both have totalitarian aims, it's just that they get their by slightly different routes.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Whatever, freedom lovers still have a problem with their own apathy, well not apathy but real, justified and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">commonsensible</span> <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">aversion</span> to wasting their lives in smoked filled rooms when they could be doing other much more important things, like, for example, walking the dogs in the fresh air <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">on a</span> spring <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">morning.</span> </span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-61971164448754066952010-03-01T13:04:00.003+00:002010-03-01T13:10:46.620+00:00Oh No! And I thought Engineers were sensible..<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Now the Engineers </span><a href="http://www.nce.co.uk/news/business/cash-push-for-projects/5214720.article"><span style="font-family:verdana;">are at it</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. Stealing MY money. This is a feature in NCE magazine about how to fund infrastructure. To save you wading through the whole load of bollocks, I'll extract this classic:-</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><em><span style="font-family:verdana;">"...It added that <span style="color:#ff0000;">proceeds from the sale of the government’s share in bailed out banks</span> and from the auction of carbon permits could also be channelled to the bank..."</span></em></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">WTF! It's is not, repeat not the Governemnt's share in the banks. It's the TAXPAYER's fucking share you arrogant corporatist dolts.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">And if the project can't be funded commercially it's probably not viable and should not be built.</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-51003757352384115372010-03-01T12:56:00.007+00:002010-03-01T13:12:43.177+00:00Just as I have been predicting.......<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The Financial Services Authority has decided to </span><a href="http://www.moneymarketing.co.uk/regulation/fsa-fines-could-treble-in-size/1007558.article#commentsubmitted"><span style="font-family:verdana;">triple</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> its 'fines'. This is exactly mirroring the Stasi's behaviour in East Germany as Bureaucratic Fascist/Communism imploded. The Stasi's ability to control the public by State sanctioned Terror evaporated, so they reverted to type and just simply shot dead more people. The FSA can't do that, yet. But as an out of control utterly unaccountable totally failed bureaucratic Quango they're going to have to make do with the next best thing and set about bankrupting anyone who contravenes their arbitrary - and as we all now know - useless rules. Separation of powers, you say? Don't make me laugh. This lot are judge jury and executioner.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">This is exactly what I predicted years ago.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Bastards.</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-89821878070577858242010-02-24T17:39:00.004+00:002010-02-24T18:02:05.799+00:00What's Wrong with this page from the IR Website?<span style="font-family:verdana;">Look at the table. What is the heading in the pink row? CUSTOMER group. CUSTOMER! Customer. I am not a <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">bleedin</span>' customer. I am poor beleaguered TAX PAYER. </span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQwYlAoV1LrTYdgtlgk35Pyw99S2dz1AqoQKWVHu46GqKHwa4y4uWncywyEGH7K1ZSE1aISE0aWLgJ95Bxd8lDus-ifvnzMgVu4uhH7_Rik0pSB0gXR2BkKSJw3kw36qcjgU4zM3WeIU4/s1600-h/IR+Table+240210.jpg"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 320px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 245px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441870598449330978" border="0" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQwYlAoV1LrTYdgtlgk35Pyw99S2dz1AqoQKWVHu46GqKHwa4y4uWncywyEGH7K1ZSE1aISE0aWLgJ95Bxd8lDus-ifvnzMgVu4uhH7_Rik0pSB0gXR2BkKSJw3kw36qcjgU4zM3WeIU4/s320/IR+Table+240210.jpg" /></span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"><br /></span><div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpH4NkuCQFy7S7zu1BxfFkLGbpgH9UbhLj_bBd8B0m4RNCXgrEiU8xqPKcyKhdHinqdDaQRdeXX8W7FKXxqmTaCoCtIzV-N56GZFT987fOeIN1tSSgnHqFhYy3q3LudPQSNH8BVaxSL-0/s1600-h/IR+Table+240210.jpg"></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">This sums up all that is wrong in New Labour's totalitarian bureaucratic Britain. To misquote No6 'I am not a customer! I am a taxpayer!'<br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family:verdana;">Fuck me pink.</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-76909178469025755642010-02-23T09:40:00.005+00:002010-02-23T10:00:33.621+00:00The NHS at 'Work'<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Referring to my earlier posts where I describe how the State tried to kill me, I have now had some follow up stuff, including a planned appointment with the cardiologist, a Good Bloke.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">First I arrive at the appointed time and am kept waiting for over one hour. Luckily I'd put enough of the hard earned in the automatic cash confiscation machine so that I wasn't <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">over parked</span>.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Then we get to the appointment. Doc has a trainee cardiac nurse in with him. "Is this OK with you Mr Lola?" "Of course Doc"</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">We make the usual pleasantries, and the 'phone rings. He answers and is dragged into long consultation with a colleague, mouthing apologies to me. 5 minutes goes by.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Whilst he is engaged in that there's a knock on the door and a <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">Junior</span> colleague comes in with a a huge file and a question. He hangs around.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Doc asks me if I mind if he gets shot of junior colleague before we carry on? "Nope", I say, "you go right ahead".</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">As he's doing that there is another knock on the door and a nurse/<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">administrator</span> pokes her head round the door, then comes in and asks if it is OK to put another call through. 'It's a private matter'.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">By now the Doc is looking a bit pressured, so the 'phone decides to ring again. he ignores it and turns to me and says 'look, I think it's best if we deal with you first'.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">All the audience hangs around whilst he asks me a couple of questions and writes out a scrip. We shake hands and off I go.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Now, be clear, I am not at all precious about myself. Shit happens. But this is bonkers. This is the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">NHS</span> doing what it does best. Complete fucking chaos and complete disregard for patients and their wants and needs. I had no chance to ask the questions I wanted to and I am not all as informed as I want to be.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">So what to do. Well, in order to get some time and privacy and pick his brains, I am going to have to pay for a private consultation again aren't I?</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">My immediate response is to refuse to pay my income tax. And when I do send them a cheque I am going to deduct these costs and see what happens.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">The real tragedy is that the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">NHS</span> fails because it denies the freedom to the staff to do the job properly. It's not money. It's structures. These people, the clinicians, whom I have found to be generally good, are unable to do their job well because of the endemic chaos of an entirely producer captured monopoly.</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-25840671431796354022010-02-22T18:19:00.005+00:002010-02-23T09:39:55.444+00:00More Statist Bollocks<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">I am being bloody minded about my self assessment tax payment due on 31st January. In <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">essence</span> I am <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">delaying</span> paying the bastards anything until the last possible moment. I know I'll have to pay interest and penalties, but the price is worth it just to not give that bastard Brown any more money to fritter away.</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Anyway, to the point of this post.</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Just got a letter from the Inland Revenue. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">Sentence</span> 1 reads as follows:</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">"Nine out of ten <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">UK</span> citizens pay their Self Assessment tax on time, funding the public services that we all benefit from".</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">W.T.F?</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Talk about spin.</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">For a start that means that 10% don't, so I'd be a damn' fool to pay mine on time then?</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Next. There are what, 32m people in employment in the UK. Of which 8.5m turn up for the state every day. Only about 3.0m of those do any 'work', e.g. doctors, nurses, military etc. and probably half of those could do their work in the private sector. So there arer 7m are just doing what exactly? Well, not paying tax for a start seeing as how any income tax notionally deducted from their <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">turning</span> up money is just a rebate to the rest of us in private business.</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Then there is the bloody implicit message that public services are automatically a Good Thing. No they bloody well are not. 50% of these 'services' <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">could be</span> better delivered by the private sector where I could choose whether or not to pay for them, all the fake charities for example, or having my bins collected. And anyway they don't deliver services, they ration them. And, and, some of these services don't just take your money and spend it badly, they try and kill you! I have <a href="http://lolathebeautiful.blogspot.com/2009/11/quangos-try-to-kill-you.html">personal experience </a>of this.</span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span></div><br /><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Fuck me. That sentence in that letter has <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">made</span> me very angry indeed.</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-73889154198335405132010-02-12T16:34:00.001+00:002010-02-12T16:36:33.491+00:00Trouble at the (Fed) - Bank of England / Treasury<span style="font-family:verdana;">See this </span><a href="http://mises.org/daily/4097"><span style="font-family:verdana;">link</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> to a Von Mises institute blog post. For Bernanke read King Darling Brown Balls.</span>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-48108033133222112352010-02-06T20:05:00.003+00:002010-02-06T20:10:11.204+00:00FSA - Again<span style="font-family:verdana;">I am being forced to look at the Stasi FSA website again. I came across this classic:</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">"These pages are for you if you are a financial adviser and want to find out how the FSA regulates you and what’s going on in your sector."</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">What! I know exactly what's going in my 'sector' you bunch of bureaucratic fuckwits. It's you that has absolutely no idea what's going on - anywhere in any sector. And if you do turn up and find out what is going on, you just fuck it up.</span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span><br /><span style="font-family:verdana;">Wankers</span>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-71009600443888215572010-01-23T18:15:00.004+00:002010-01-23T18:35:29.784+00:00More Financial Services Authority Revelations<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Been doing a bit of digging around.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The CEO of the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">FSA</span> is a bloke called Hector <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Sants</span>. Look him up on </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Sants"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">Wikipedia</span></span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. According to my contacts he is also very New Labour (why am I not surprised) suave, genial, clever and pretty sure of his own wonderfulness.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Sants</span> took on the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">FSA</span> job in 2004 and was <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">allegedly</span> very <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">disappointed</span> that it did not <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">automatically</span> come with a Knighthood.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Once the Tories announced that they would be scrapping the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-error">FSA</span> if/when they got into power <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">Sants</span> made two or three rather <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_10" class="blsp-spelling-error">political</span>, anti Tory policy speeches, that I understand did not go down well with the Dave and George show. So they got clever. It seems that when (if) the Tories get in and sort out <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_11" class="blsp-spelling-error">FS</span> reg-yew-lay-shun they are going to need more very skilled people at the Bank of England and I am told that certain grades of staff automatically qualify for a 'K'.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"><span id="SPELLING_ERROR_12" class="blsp-spelling-error">Sants</span> has been very quiet recently.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Now, how many of you have read the Sword in the Stone? Sir '<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_13" class="blsp-spelling-error">Ector</span> is Arthur's guardian. When Arthur pulls the sword from the stone Sir' <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_14" class="blsp-spelling-error">Ector</span> falls to his knees and acknowledges his Liege. I often wondered whether the Legend of Arthur has been <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_15" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">misinterpreted</span>. Is it possible that Arthur is a paradigm for the Common Man. That when the Common Man gets power all the lords will kneel in front of him?</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">So Mr S, knowing that you are a pretty self satisfied bloke I should be very careful if I were you. Becoming Sir '<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_16" class="blsp-spelling-error">Ector</span> will always make me think of Arthur's sovereignty - the sovereignty of the Common Man.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">To quote another popular hero of the Common Man, "I'll just put your name in my little black book, and come the revolution, up against the wall; bang bang bang."</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-61426851436957046452010-01-23T17:48:00.006+00:002010-01-23T18:40:37.810+00:00Fairness<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">'Fairness' is a word much used and abused by New Labour, or lefties in general. Of course this is a nonsense as what they mean is that they have a monopoly on deciding what's fair, even though you and I might (would almost certainly) think that whatever they think fair as very unfair.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Take income tax for example. A good choice for this time of year. Firstly income tax is a very bad tax. It is at best a tax on employment and at worst a tax on life, i.e. time. And since no State employee pays any income tax at all, since what is notionally deducted from their pay is simply a rebate to the rest of us in private business, why should anyone else?</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Now, much is made of the fact that income tax is 'fair' as it is a 'progressive' tax. That is that those earning more pay more. <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Erm</span>, why is this fair? Assuming a percentage rate based tax, why should person A earning £100,000 pay proportionally more than person B earning £50,000? Surely that's grossly unfair? Just because you earn more you are expected to pay more. Why? Food and fuel aren't priced like that. Why should government be?</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Well, this policy of progressive taxation is designed by lefties to demonise higher earners in the eyes of lower earners and to make earning a lot of money a Bad Thing. The assumption is that Person A only has a lot of money because he stole it from person B. This is stupid as we all know. Person A is simply more skilled or lucky or determined than person B. Mostly person A is simply more skilled and harder working and more committed to creating wealth than person B. So why should he be coerced by the state under the ultimate threat of violence and the loss of his liberty to pay proportionally more tax?</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Well, he shouldn't. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Supposing we changed the income tax rates so that people earning up to say £12,000 p.a. (roughly the minimum wage) paid no tax.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Then those on earnings between £12,000 and £50,000, say, paid tax at 20%.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">And then on earnings over £50,001 the income tax rate was nil.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">What do we think would happen?</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Well, first off it is a clear signal that we are going to encourage high earning.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Second we are making it very clear that earning a lot of money is a very good thing.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Next it recognises that it is very unfair for anyone to pay proportionally more tax than anyone else.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">I am also certain that this would encourage so much wealth creation that UK <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">plc</span> would benefit hugely.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">It would go a long way to killing the envy culture fostered by lefties, hence it would be a blow for freedom.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">As a companion to this there must also be a massive cut in what the state actually does so that State employees can be reduced to the minimum. Because they still won't pay any tax.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The end game of this is of course the scrapping of income tax altogether. This would be the fairest thing whilst we have a large-<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">ish</span> state employing people. Once income tax is scrapped all those in private business will then be taxed at the same rate as those employed by the State.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Surely that's even more 'fair'?</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">PS. For the avoidance of doubt I think the military should be exempt from income tax anyway. But not the police.</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-70040042207284333462010-01-18T21:42:00.003+00:002010-01-18T21:49:36.288+00:00Billy Bragg Tax Protest<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Just signed up with Billy <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bragg's</span> tax protest on <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">Facebook</span>. </span><a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=417490570190#/group.php?gid=417490570190"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Here</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;">. Feel a bit of a prat for doing so really. I mean, he's right that <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">RBS</span> shouldn't be paying bonuses, but he's got it arse about face as to why they are.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Thing is, Billy old son, the first mistake New Labour made was to bail them out in the first place. There were a number of other routes that could have been taken to make the banks including <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">RBS</span> liquid again. Debt for equity swaps for example. Secondly having bailed out all these banks New Labour have created a cartel. And what do cartels do? Exploit their customers and everyone else. So paying out mega bonuses was always on the cards.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Now I agree that Brown Darling could stop all this but since they've made a complete fist of 'running the economy' (by the way 'running the economy' is the usual lefty delusion, economies run themselves pretty well if left to get on with it) what makes you or anyone else think that they could 'run' the banks? Quite.</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-1392685561721993002010-01-03T22:23:00.002+00:002010-01-03T22:33:14.254+00:00Thought Control?<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">I notice that New Labour are setting up another thought conditioning experiment on the young. They are requiring schools to teach 'financial capability' as part of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">PSE</span> lessons. They are going to teach children about bank accounts, how to set up a DD, how to write a cheque and well, all about lots of other bits of what is just administration.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">This is risible for two reasons.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">1. New Labour being the most financially inept government ever, has no credibility at all when it comes to financial capability.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">2. If they wanted to teach children something <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">useful</span> they could drum into them two simple facts. (a) Don't trust banks. And (b) Don't trust governments.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The admin they can sort out for themselves when they get there.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">There. Easy isn't it.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">(Have you seen the equally risible <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">NatWest</span> Ads? There's one of their female bods in a school going on about all this admin. If I was a teacher I'd ask her to explain to the class how they made such a first class mess of their business, went bust, and tried very hard to take the whole country with them. Now that would be a <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">useful</span> lesson).</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-6924573398571402592010-01-02T18:45:00.003+00:002010-01-02T18:57:13.836+00:00Who tells you what to do?(A) Lefties, including New Labour (or just Labour) , Lib <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">dems</span>, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-error">BNP</span> / Socialism: The 'get in <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">everyone's</span> bloody way party / philosophy'.<br /><br />(B) <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">Righties</span>, including <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">LPUK</span>, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-error">UKIP</span>, Tories (Unless they get seduced by paternalistic <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_6" class="blsp-spelling-error">oligarchism</span> and <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_7" class="blsp-spelling-error">homeownerism</span>) / <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_8" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">Libertarianism</span>: The 'lets get out of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_9" class="blsp-spelling-error">everyone's</span> way party / philosophy'.<br /><br />Which is likely to not just work better, but to work at all? Do YOU think they know what's best for you? Do YOU always want to be told what to do? No, me neither.Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-85930130983627151032009-12-30T16:32:00.005+00:002009-12-30T16:42:02.373+00:00HMS Enterprise?<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Whatever the taxation arguments, the John Redwood <a href="http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/2009/12/29/we-need-more-entrepreneurs/">post</a> was really about enterpreneurialism. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Many people, and respondents on his blog, get confused between enterprise and entrepreneurialism. Essentially enterprise is a quality that most of us possess to one degree or another. Very few people though possess entrepreneurialism. To be an entrepreneur you need to see things in a new way. To spot the inefficiency or the opportunity for a new good or service. You need to be really creative.<br /></div></span><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">This differentiation between enterprise and entrepreneurialism is evident in the employment statistics. About 4 million workers are self employed. But very few of those actually created a new business based on a new product or service idea. Many just do what they did for an employer on their own account.<br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Entrepreneurs are those that disturb the steady state economy and send it off in a new direction. Enterprising people are not necessarily entrepreneurs, but they can be very successful, and excellent job creators in their own field.<br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The point of this ramble is that it is genuinely possible to teach people to be enterprising, you just need self belief, energy and ambition; but much more difficult, and I contend not really possible, to teach entrepreneurialism.<br /></div></span><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The root of our problem is an education system designed to create bureaucratic jobsworths and to supply supplicant and pliable cannon fodder into the maw of the bureaucratic state. It also has the added benefit of not creating people who will challenge the bureaucracy.<br /></div></span><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">I was fortunate I went to one of the last true Grammar Schools. Loads of Old Boys of that school showed enterprise and some genuine entrepreneurialism.<br /></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">So if you want more enterprise, liberate education. Trouble is the turn round round time for the UK is therefore generational, not just a couple of years.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">(This is an edited version of a comment made on Mark Wadsworth's blog <a href="http://markwadsworth.blogspot.com/2009/12/know-it-all-twats-pver-at-john-redwoods.html">here</a>)</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-13293791702231816352009-12-30T15:45:00.006+00:002009-12-30T16:11:51.861+00:00And Happy New Year to You...<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Well, that's it. Just been told by a contact that the Inland <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Revenue</span> is not negotiating on tax payments for businesses and the self employed. Pay up now or that's it. 'Course they aren't. One, Brown has run out of our money and two, <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">someone has</span> to pay the IR staff. After all they don't pay any income tax themselves, do they?</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Income tax is a terrible thing. It was foist upon as as a con job by a long past government probably to pay for a war on the basis that it would only apply to the 'rich'. But of course once out there the temptation of politicians to creep downwards with the limits was all too tempting until we now have the situation that even someone on minimum wage pays income tax. (Note. I do not support the idea of a minimum wage.)</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">And as far as State jobsworths is concerned it is just part of the mad money go round of the bureaucratic state. Since, as <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-error">PAYE</span>, income tax is a tax on employment it is the IR - part of <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-error">HMG</span> - that pays the employees tax, not the employee. And just where did the IR (or <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_4" class="blsp-spelling-error">HMG</span>) get the money to pay its employees? Yup, from the workers adding real value in the real economy. So the IR collects money from us, pays some of it to their employees and keeps back the rest. In other words it is just a saving on the employment cost of the state employee, as opposed to a cost for all of us private business employers. On top of that the profligacy of their pension benefits, at a cost of between 20% to 30% of salary roll means that this saving to us, wealth creators, is simply swallowed up in funding (or not fully funding) extremely generous pensions to state employees.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">This mad money go round exposes the inequity of income tax. One, no state employee pays it. And two, it is a destroyer of employment in the non government employment sector - private business. On top of my New Year wish list is the announcement that one or other party recognises the massive <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_5" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">unfairness</span> and destructive nature of Income tax and will make an absolute commitment to abolish it by a certain time, say five years hence.</span></div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">A first step is the introduction of a flat tax at a rate of about 20% starting at a higher threshold of about £15,000. </span> </div><div align="justify"> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">It won't happen. Will it?</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-86336960151369345242009-11-04T18:06:00.007+00:002009-11-04T18:39:18.267+00:00Formula 1<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Toyota, and probably Renault, are getting out of F1. A basic knowledge of freedom and markets told me that this, or something like it, would happen, and that the 'compulsory budget cuts' - or in economic terms, price controls - proposed by the Max (now Jean) and Bernie were utterly fatuous.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">F1's current situation is an object lesson in what happens without democracy, the rule of law and the indulgence of oligarchs. The FIA is an undemocratic dictatorship. It has handed a monopoly patent for all the 'commercial rights' to an oligarch. The FIA operates kangaroo courts to enforce these positions. This corporatisation attracts other cartelisers and mercantilists, like big corporations and autocratic governments. This, for a time, suits the oligarch as he can demand substantial commissions from competing mercantilist and totalitarian governments to bring the show to their town to lend them legitimacy and credibility of their own lack of democracy.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">This excess spending filters down to the teams where international corporations are sucked into spending an awful lot of money to try and become winners. A lot of this cash is spent not on engineering and racing but on corporate entertainment and similar. Carmakers as a genral rule are only profitable on their core business one year in five (source: Warren Buffett) hence much of their F1 spend must also come from borrowed money. Keeping up in the bling competition is not cheap.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">But, as one lady once famously remarked, 'you can't buck the markets'. Sooner or later the international investors and bankers that have been bankrolling much of the profligate circuit building, carmakers and other fellow travellers will call time on their largesse. The tsunami of cheap money that has sustained the F1 bubble will retreat and an awful lot of people will have been found to be swimming naked.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Max and Bernie have been stupidly trying to impose price controls and more and more detailed rules to try stop this happening. Listen you pair of idiots, price controls never work. As neither do excessive bureaucratic rule writing (which has the entirely opposite effect by increasing costs). But, the loss of Toyota and Renualt will immediately cut the cost of competing in F1. There will be people available. Their facilities will be on offer, cheap. The remaining teams will be able to pay less for everything. This is markets working. What is more important it will cut the barriers to entry for new teams. Small innovative ingenious engineering and ideas led teams. Efficient teams. Cosworth will be back. Why not other engine suppliers like AER?</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Bernie and his CVC financiers will, hopefully, be worried sick. CVC's cashflow demands to service it debts are a bigger cash drain out of F1 than any other one thing.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">My fervent hope is that the Toyota and Renault exit triggers a serious financial problem at CVC leading to it getting out completely. This may also trigger the exit of Bernie. And this may lead to the FIA resuming control over all aspects of F1. There is only one problem. Jean Todt. The man is an autocratic French mercantilist political operator. Without him there would be a vague chance that the FIA would massively reduce all the fiddling rules and cut the entry fee demands to a reasonable amount and reintroduce democracy. </span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Williams and Brawn have demonstrated that it is entirely possibel to compete on relatively modest budgets. So lets look for a new era of innovative and very competive garagistes to bring real racing back to F1. I am only sorry that there will probably never be another Ken Tyrrell. And lastly we can say a very welcome farewell to all the ghastly souless F1 facilities like Abu Dhabi.</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-4385286279965505772009-11-02T14:23:00.003+00:002009-11-02T14:42:31.539+00:00Quangos Try to Kill You<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Not done much posting and reading of blogs for some months. I've been off work too. It'll be 5 weeks tomorrow. Hospitalised. Why? I've got endocarditis. How did I get it? See </span><a href="http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG64"><span style="font-family:verdana;">here</span></a><span style="font-family:verdana;"> .</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">I have had a not very well functioning heart valve for years. Diagnosed when I was 7 and rediagnosed when I was about 30 and told to me. So, for the last 27/28 years I have worked hard on keeping my heart fit and have done so. This regime also included prophylatic antibiotics before any dental procedure.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Consequent upon the NICE guidance my dentist asked me to check with my GP as to whether the prophylatic antibiotics should be discontinued. I asked him and he said that he had taken advice from a cardiologist and the answer was that they were 'required to take account of NICE guidance'.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">I then proceeded normally, but without any prohylaxis,and had two or three minor dental treatments - check ups and cleans - and by Christmas 2008 my wife had noticed that I was not my usual self. I first noticed symptoms over the weekend of 30 / 31 May 2009. Endocarditis is very difficult to diagnose and it took until late September, by when I had become very ill, that Endocarditis was diagnosed in a consultation with a specialist that I had to pay for as the NHS could not provide an appointment until weeks later. I was immediately committed to hospital and put on a 6 week course of antibiotics.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">I am incensed that some bloody bureaucrat should interfere in the professional relationship I have with my doctors and end up with exactly the wrong advice which has gone a long way to ruin all the keep fit work I have done for nigh on 30 years.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">The moral of this story is that Quangos kill you. Always do exactly the opposite of what they tell you. My financial services business operates on exactly that principle and we've been proved right and the FSA wrong.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">I am now going to read the NICE guidance thoroughly and send them a very straightforward letter basically telling them that they are a bunch of wankers and what are they going to do about an apology and compensation. Fat chance. Oh, and all the clinicians I have spoken to have remarked that there has been a spike in endocarditis cases since the NICE guidance.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;"></span> </div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:Verdana;">Bastards.</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-41783447319848451982009-09-18T21:46:00.005+01:002009-09-19T17:18:18.246+01:00Comedy Headline of the Day (only it's not at all funny)<div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">"Lloyds TSB fails FSA Stress Test"</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha!</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">If ever there was a case of the blind leading the semi-defunct, this is it.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">We have one failed (as predicted by me) quango passing technical judgement on a failed bank (I've been a bear of bank shares since ooooo 2000/2002). I mean, really, you couldn't make it up could you.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">(NB The first FSA stupidity with 'stress tests' was to force Standard Life to sell £17Bn of equities at exactly the wrong time, and on which crass cluelessness the admirable Scott Bell resigned)</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">FSA = Wankers</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">Lloyds TSB = Crooks.</span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;"></span></div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family:verdana;">PS No posts for a long time 'cos I've been sick. L.</span></div>Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-766742034442136542.post-67939410465875087442009-07-15T21:20:00.002+01:002009-07-15T21:31:38.417+01:00The Good and the Great.Yesterday I went to a do at the local school celebrating the success of a committee that included Mrs Lola in creating a mgical school garden. Mrs L and her henchmen had decided to move on after nine years and hand over to new people. The do was to celebrate their success. About 100 people turned up. This is at a 70 pupil village school.<br /><br />I chatted up all the pretty mums and did a bit of people watching. One common theme was that all those present did stuff and made stuff happen. These are Good people. The backbone of what makes England work. In fact they are Great people. They won't moan about Brown. (Well, they will. You can't not). But what they will also do is buckle down and sort out the mess he created. It won't be any action of the useless government that saves us from anarchy and penury, it'll be the 100 people at the party and 100's of others of the same type in little villages and small towns and bits of big cities that will get on and sort it out the mess Brown and New Labour have created. They will save money. They will cut costs. They will create the jobs. They will look round their neighbours and see who needs a little help. They will turn up at the school and help with reading classes. They will run the school kitchen garden and feed the kids with fresh food, all without any input from Jamie sodding Oliver.<br /><br />Yet again it will be these people who, despite the bloody useless government, will do the stuff that make the stuff happen and sort out the mess.<br /><br />And note well, this is just England. It'll be the same everywhere else. The average bloke and his knackered wife buckling down and doing it.<br /><br />Why oh why don't the likes of New Labour get this?Lolahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04586735342675041312noreply@blogger.com1