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Corporation Tax • The headline rate was cut from 30p to 28p in the 2007 budget but the rate for small companies was increased from 19p to 20p from 2007/04/01. It will rise further to 21p in 2008 and to 22p in 2009.
Gordon Brown says the change is to penalize workers from eastern Europe, who register themselves as companies to avoid paying income tax when they arrived in the UK. But instead of closing this loophole, he has chosen to increase the tax burden by stealth on all small companies.
Dental Tax 1 • Despite increasing National Insurance, which is supposed to pay for the Health Service, the government is forcing dentists out of the NHS system and obliging their customers to seek private treatment via a dental plan costing, typically, £19 per month. [Thanks to N.B. for this one.]
Dental Tax 2 • 2006/04/01 The cost of a dental checkup on the NHS rose threefold from £5.54 to £15.50. The cost of a filling went up fourfold to £42.40 and the price of a gold crown doubled to £189.
'Didn't Vote' Tax • July 2005 Geoff 'Buff' Hoon, former Defence Minister, wants to make voting compulsory at general elections so that New Labour can impose a fine on anyone who exercises their former democratic right not to vote for any of the unappealing candidates.
Council Tax : The government has a stealth policy of cutting grants to local councils while giving them more to do, and thus loading council tax as a means of keeping income tax rates artificially low. By 2006, Council Tax had doubled since 1997 and the arrival of New Labour.
• July 2004 The government has ambitions to set a Council Tax rate in excess of £6,000. Paying a rate support grant, or its equivalent, has always been a headache for central government. Which is why this one is planning to make councils raise most of their revenue locally and just apply modest 'top ups'. The plan is also a cynical exercise in putting cash into the pockets of Labour voters at the expense of Tory voters. Anyone who has been living in the same house for decades while neighbouring properties change hands at crazy prices will have to give up their friends and move to somewhere cheaper.
January 2005 The latest adjustments to the Council Tax will see homes in traditional Tory areas pushed into the next higher band while those in traditional Labour-supporting areas will remain largely in the same band.
Finally, the trousers are coming off the Government's education policies. The news that teenager Paul Erhahon, who was murdered by a gang of youths last Friday in a quiet London suburb, had suffered an earlier knife attack at school has, together with other teenage stabbings and murders, offered a glimpse of the sordid underbelly of violence in our classrooms. Many of these violent teenage disputes - there have been seven murders over the past 11 weeks in London alone - have their origins at school.
It should come as no surprise that in these menacing settings, not much learning is going on: Government figures show that one in four pupils is failing to make progress or is getting worse in key subjects during their first three years at secondary school. Almost 150,000 pupils make no progress in science, while 85,000 fail to improve their grades in English and 30,000 in maths.
As a teacher in various comprehensive schools for the past 15 years, I know that the problem isn't with parents, pupils or teachers - it's the result of shockingly poor, incompetent and meddling governance.
Head of the Institute of Directors calls for more investment in eductaion and training
Government policies on education and training are doing nothing to plug the UK’s productivity gap, according to Miles Templeman, director general of the Institute of Directors.
In a speech to the Institute of Economic Affairs in Central London later today Templeman will lay the blame for weak productivity – compared to other G8 economies – squarely on historical under-investment in education.
At the 1996 Labour Party conference, Tony Blair famously stated that his three top priorities on coming to office were "education, education and education". But when Gordon Brown takes over from Mr Blair as prime minister later this year, I predict that he will announce four top priorities: "Educashun, edukashon and edukayshin."
Yes, I know that's only three priorities. And I know that's not how you spell education. But what do you expect after 10 years of New Labour? Numeracy? Literacy?
For answers to those questions, I turn to Sir Digby Jones, the former CBI director-general, who was last month appointed "skills troubleshooter" by none other than Gordon Brown. In a speech last week, Sir Digby pointed out that fewer than half of pupils sitting the General Certificate of Secondary Education in English and Mathematics gained grades higher than D. (For the record, 47 per cent got A, B or C grades in English, and 44 per cent in Maths.) And this after more than a decade of grade inflation! In 1989, as the former chief inspector of schools Chris Woodhead has pointed out, the mark needed for a C in Maths was 48 per cent. By 2000 it had fallen to 18 per cent.
The treaty is self-amending.
The treaty contains an article, sometimes referred to as a "ratchet clause", allowing member states to agree that decisions currently taken only by means of a unanimous vote, can in future be taken by a mere majority vote (though this is ruled out in the area of defence). It also contains provisions allowing the objectives of most EU policies to be amended.
Both of these procedures allow EU treaties to be revised without an intergovernmental conference (IGC). So could it be that in future EU treaties will be changed incrementally, without fanfare, depriving opponents even of the chance of campaigning for a referendum?
Yes and No. There are two important caveats: member states would still have to take the decision unanimously, just as they would at an IGC; and all national parliaments would have to approve. Opponents would still be able to campaign against such changes, though they would probably find it even harder to secure a referendum than it already is.
Originally posted by budski
This government has been one of the worst ever
Originally posted by redledThe economy is not looking good
Smear and accusation with zero substance behind them is the usual truth of this kind of claim/tory tabloid-talk.
Talk about a fact-free generalisation.
- Ah yes, the present education system that has witnessed record results and the highest level of attainment this country has ever seen.
Just a rehash of some highly questionable tabloid tales with no-one actually doing anything illegal or in fact "corrupt" by any serious definition.
Originally posted by budski
substance provided
Originally posted by budski
facts provided, showing how managers and government agencies skew figures
Originally posted by budski
an outright falsehood according to several cited sources including Miles Templeman, director general of the Institute of Directors and Sir Digby Jones, the former CBI director-general.
Originally posted by budski
not corrupt? oh, please - all examples posted are true.
Originally posted by budski
As for being off topic, you are the one who first introduced the tories into this discussion, in the hope of spinning attention away from the point of the thread
Originally posted by budski
There is, according to William Hague, "near unanimity" that the treaty is "simply the substance of the constitution, repackaged"
Originally posted by budski
prudence promised a referndum then backtracked because he thought he might lose - in fact pretty much the same as a november election.
Originally posted by budski
If you want to point to the success of the economy, you of all people should know the foundation for the current success - even if it pains you to say it.
Originally posted by budski
The fact that labour has stayed in power for 10 years only shows the lack of credible opposition - it doesn't point to success in government
Originally posted by budski
as I believe I have proved with my links.
Originally posted by budski
Whether there is a need for a referendum or not, the fact is that the country was promised one, then that promise (like so many others) was broken.
Originally posted by budski
Oh come on, I know the tories did a lot of social damage regarding unions
Originally posted by budski
but the economic base that came out of it is the reason for todays relative properity.
Originally posted by budski
I just don't happen to think that this is a particularly good government - their record on crime, the nhs, immigration, sleaze, spin, education, social care for the elderly etc etc really does bear this out.
Originally posted by budski
We were promised open and honest government, and we can see that this has not happened - examples of cover ups regarding immigration have surfaced in the last few weeks as the most recent example.
Originally posted by budski
Perhaps if you took an honest look and stepped aside from the partisan viewpoint you'd be able to admit the shortcomings of new labour.
Originally posted by budski
I'm not saying that any of the current opponents are any better, but regarding some of todays issues they couldn't be that much worse.
A LABOUR councillor has been banned from all football matches for three years after racially abusing former Wigan Athletic defender Pascal Chimbonda.
David Phythian, 54, hurled insults at him during Latics' 3-3 draw with Tottenham Hotspur in April, a court was told.
The French international was making his first appearance at the JJB Stadium after being sold by Wigan to Spurs for £5.25m in August last year.
Originally posted by budski
I disagree that this is open government, although it is more open than before.
Originally posted by budski
No comment on the racist labour councillor and the fact that he was not punished?
Originally posted by budski
I stand by the figures I presented regarding unemployment figures, regardless of who invented how to skew them - just because the tool is there doesn't mean it has to be used.
Originally posted by budski
I'm also a little concerned by your constant referral to the so called tabloid press - yes it's mostly rubbish, but to suggest that there is no truth in it is misleading at best.
Originally posted by budski
If an institution with the political bias of the BBC is being critical, you can bet that the real story is much worse - so I stand by my statement.
Originally posted by budski
BTW sminkey, I'm very much enjoying this and even learning a little
Originally posted by budski
Oh, I think I'll go for the full half hour.
Originally posted by budski
The only problem is, it probably won't work in the touchy feely PC country that's been created under new labour - I have been incapped for over three years thanks to my back problem, and qualifying standards at the moment are a joke.
Originally posted by budski
They hope to get some of the 2.7 million claimants back to work, and to reduce new claims by 20,000 a year, by being tougher.
Never happen
Originally posted by budski
Now lets see him do something about the farce that is
1) family tax credit
Originally posted by budski
2) CSA
Originally posted by budski
and let's see how darling (NOT an endearment) blusters his way out of this
Originally posted by budski
His Tonyness brings in the human rights act - cherie makes a mint from it
I do know that 'back problems' are the easiest to fake and the hardest to disprove.
So what's so "farcical" about using the taxation system to help those in work on the lowest incomes?
I'd have thought that you favoured helping people who had bothered to go out and find employment no matter how lowly paid?
It's a classic 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' situation......and in large part manufactured abroad (it's roots are in the US 'sub-prime' mortgage market).
Had this Gov done nothing they would have been loudly cursed of allowing huge damage to the UK banking system & economy.
If you're going to imply some kind of corruption in this don't be so shy......but while you're at it you might care to explain how come no Parliamentary enquiries were conducted into this and the Police completely missed it.