Gordon Brown ambushed by soldier over tax

A British soldier has questioned Gordon Brown during his visit to Afghanistan about why British soldiers are taxed whilst fighting for their country.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown was ambushed during his trip to Afghanistan on Saturday by a British soldier who asked him about whether soldiers should have to pay tax while on operations in the country.

It was not the sort of ambush Gordon Brown was expecting during his trip to Afghanistan.

The Prime Minister was having lunch with a group of Welsh Guards at a British military base in Lashkar Gah and was chatting about football when Lance Corporal Dean Byfield asked if he could put a question to the Labour leader.

Paying tax on operations is a sore point amongst most British troops who feel that the reductions from their pay packets should cease when they are out of the country on operations.

Source: Gordon Brown ambushed by soldier over tax

I did chuckle when i saw this. I can't remember the amount of times we were told to keep our mouths shut when a VIP visited our locations, not that it always happened.

I feel this young soldier will get his wrist slapped for saying this, but it needed to be said.

Our soldiers are shafted good and proper even when they are out on operations, themselves and their familes suffer.

I still say that it should be compulsory for every MP in parliment should have to volunteer one of their kids for the front line, i wonder how different things would be then?

I think the government should be very carefull how they treat the troops, because they won't always be in the forces and they won't always have them onside.

CX.

Good on this soldier for asking real questions rather that the pap rubbish, the Prime minister was expecting.

But I think we can all guess that this soldier was hauled over the coals once the PM left by his command officer.

And the answer the PM gave?

"The Prime Minister, and former Chancellor, replied that because the soldier was a British employee, his income was taxed back home while he was stationed overseas."

Would we expect any other answer from the Prime Minister of a Government that spends more on feed prisoners than soldiers per day!

IMO anybody who is serving there country should get tax free pay . This would serve two purposes the first would be to provide a small benefit to those in uniform and the second would be to help make professional militarises(SP?) compete a little bit better with the private sector who can offer better pay for equivalent jobs . Another possibility is to have the government pay back a student loan if someone serves a period of time as a reservist .