Pay the tax you owe and don't be selfish.

I spoke in the previous post about HMRC's hideous plans to have our wages paid to them. On top of that nonsense, we are also in the middle of a huge blunder that will see 1.4 million people owing £1400 in unpaid tax due to an error by the muppets at HMRC.

You would think that this would be the final straw for the British public. You would think people would be so sick of handing over sixty percent of their wages under threat of force, to see it frittered away by an uncaring government that they would be disgusted to learn they owed extra due to the incompetence of the tax collectors. So sick even, that they would not think twice about saying, "No!". That they would happily refuse to pay the £1400, or whatever, when the demand dropped through the door. I am that sick of it. I am also sick of Mr and Mrs Normal who think this is perfectly ok and demand that I should think the same.

Check out these comments from The Wail:

Technically or legally, one MAY not need to refund any payment received BUT let us not forget the MORAL side. If the money received is due to a mistake, for whatever reason, everyone MUST make the refund. It is downright dishonest not to do so. NO one should keep moey NOT rightly due to that person. To do so would be stealing. To encourage people not to return what is not theirs, is abhorrent.


- Robert Chan, Auckland, New Zealand, 7/9/2010 9:55

Your moral duty is to avoid paying tax wherever possible. The Government employs no morals in taking it or spending it. Why should we when paying it?

Isn't the country in a bad enough mess as it is. If you owe the tax then pay it and stop grousing.


- M Davies, Arzal, France, 7/9/2010 9:56

The mess is caused by those who take the tax, not those who pay it. The mess can be straightened out by wasting less money, not by taxing more. I feel no obligation to help out with the countries mess as I had no hand in causing it.

All you selfish people out there, have you thought about all those people, like me who HAVE paid our taxes correctly. How do you look at yourselves in the mirror at night demanding that you are let off what you should have paid!!!


- Jack, Somerset, 7/9/2010 9:56

Easily. I am not selfish for wanting to keep money I have earned. For not wanting to give it to a government that promptly pisses it up the wall. If you are happy with that then go nuts. Don't expect me to be.

Governments don't have money of their own so they use ours. All the overpaid idiots in the media seem to have lost sight of this fact. If people refuse to pay the underpaid tax demanded of them then everyone else who has paid their correct tax must pay more. The fact that the Inland Revenue have made mistakes is irrelevant.


- SeaBee, London UK, 7/9/2010 9:57

You almost understood for a minute there. The government use OUR money because they have none of their own. Yet they are not accountable for how the collect or spend it. We have to account for every penny we earn, not them.
They should be accountable to us because it is our money.

Whilst it is very unfortunate the way this has happened, the crux of the matter is that a significant number ofpeople have not paid their correct share of the running costs of the country. This happens at a time when the government are looking at measures to clear the billions of government debt created by the financial crisis. If these tax errors are written off, the £3.8 billion will be added to the debt to be recovered by cuts and tax increases. Why should I pick up a share of this windfall that these 1.4million have enjoyed? The best compromise would be for them to be given longer to pay the underpayment.


- Richard, Rochford, 7/9/2010 10:07

Where to start with this one? "People have not paid their correct share of the running costs". Tax is money that we have worked hard for that gets wasted by the government. There is no fairness issue here. As to the running costs of the country, that is minimal compared to the amount of tax we are forced to pay. Most of the money goes on civil service, quangos, fake charities, illegal wars and keeping the gravy train fuelled, oiled and running on time. Do you not see any of that?
The windfall that the 1.4 million people will enjoy is a tiny portion of THEIR money that the government has been wasting all their lives. If they can claw a little bit back then good luck to them.

People who refuse to pay this tax will be deemed hypocrites if they continue to complain about people that use legal methods of tax avoidance. Pay up or forever shut up !!


- Paul, Ascot, 7/9/2010 10:26

I agree. Assuming we are saying that people shouldn't complain about those who use legal methods of tax avoidance, but applaud them? Is that what we are saying?

So this is what we are dealing with on a daily basis. Head in the fucking sand. Do as the government tells you with a smile on your face. If you see any dissenters, demand that they do the same.

Fuck the fuck off!

Who The HMRC Do They Think They Are?

HMRC could take direct control of pay cheques after tax errors

HM Revenue and Customs could take direct control of every worker’s monthly pay cheque under plans to overhaul the error-prone income tax system.

I seriously, seriously hope this is a bad blunder by an inexperienced reporter. But somehow I think not.

The reform would mean the end of traditional monthly payslips, because employers would no longer be able to tell workers how much tax they had paid each month.
Under the current PAYE system, employers calculate a worker’s tax liability and deduct the appropriate share before paying the rest to the employee.

Employees then give HMRC an annual summary of each worker’s pay and tax, which the tax authorities then assess to see if more or less tax is owed.
Under the centralised deductions system, employers would pay workers’ monthly salary into a central calculator run by HMRC.

There, income tax deductions would be made automatically and the net salary then passed on to the worker by HMRC.
Instead of a payslip detailing pay and deductions, workers would only find out how much income tax they had paid by asking HMRC.

Are we seriously supposed to trust them with our wages? Are we seriously supposed to believe that this system will not go tits up and leave people out of pocket and bearing the brunt of huge bank charges for missed direct debits.
Are we seriously to believe that HRMC are entitled to take such a liberty with OUR money?

In the two years from 2008-10, almost six million people paid the wrong amount of income tax, leaving some facing demands for repayment and others qualifying for rebates.

HMRC also has more than 18 million open cases relating to wrongly paid tax predating 2008.

Without details of the tax we have paid, how are we even to know if there has been a mistake, never mind fight it. There will no longer be 18 million open cases because people will not know if a mistake has been made or not. In order to find out how much tax we have paid, we will have to ask HMRC. We will have to request details of the tax we have paid.

HMRC and the government have no accountability whatsoever for our money. They do not keep records of what is spent. They do no prepare year end returns, telling the people where their money has gone. Their spending is accountable to no one, yet ours has to be painstakingly recorded and passed to the government so they can decide if they have stolen enough of our cash. If we refuse, we are threatened with fines, court sanctions and eventually violence in order to make us comply.

If the HMRC believes you owe more tax than you have paid they do a "lifestyle audit". They then pluck a figure out of the air, of what they think you owe and send you a bill. If you disagree it is up to you to prove your innocence. If you believe you have paid to much tax it can take months or years to get a rebate, if at all. You have no recourse to the law, you have no rights.

The government long ago crossed the bounds of acceptability in looting and spending our money, but this is the worst example yet of their utter contempt for us.

If we the people, allow this to happen, we may as well just hand over our wage to the government and ask for a little house keeping at the end of each month. Or even better, quit work and go on the dole.

Tony Blair Shooed Off

Tony Blair has been accused of running scared after cancelling his London book signing.
Anti war protesters had threatened a huge demonstration is the signing went ahead.

Blair was pelted, comedy style, with shoes and eggs when he attended a similar event in Dublin to promote his crappy book.

One protester even made it through all the tight security and told the Blair she was there to make a citizens arrest as he is a war criminal. Corny line but gutsy move nonetheless.

Blair said he was also "scared the BNP would stage a protest". I don't know where he got this information from, but it seems like a good way to paint all the protesters as fascist racists, by associating them with the BNP.

Speaking on ITV1's new Daybreak programme about his book he said: 'To be frank about it, I am concerned. I do not want to put everyone through a lot of cost and hassle on this Wednesday's signing so I am thinking about that.'

"And in Dublin I was so scared, a little poo came out".

B. Liar is also hinting that he wants a return to politics. If New Labour really want to get back into power at the next general election, I would recommend they advise strongly against this. Nobody is going to vote for a party that is constantly under a cloud of shoes and eggs.

Personally, I think the next logical step in Tony's career would be to take a long walk on a short pier.

Shocking abuse of innocent minds

From The Soundbite The Engineer and Counting Cats





This is what we have come to. Brainwashing children to further the hateful agendas of adults.
We've had theft and bullying from the Ciggy Busters, and now even worse, threats of vengeance from a young child. He's telling us in this video that there is a war on. That one day he is going to grow up and come and get us.
The reality is, he will grow up, but when he does he's going to see what a fool he looked in this film. He's going to understand how he was manipulated by self serving adults at an age when he could know no better. If he comes looking for anyone, it won't be us. It will be the adults who lied to him in his youth.
He's right about one thing though. There is a war on. A war between right minded people and those who would do this to impressionable kids. A war between those of us who want to be free and those who seek to control.
The trouble is this has all been done before. History is repeating itself and once again, people are not learning from it's mistakes.

Missing / Evading / Ignoring the Point

Medway Council have replied to The Boiling Frog, Re: the Ciggy Busters. In true council fashion they are completely missing (or ignoring) the point. This is a copy of the Frogs post:

Medway Council Update
In the nick of time I've had a reply. Surprise surprise they don't uphold my complaint - of course they don't:

Re: Formal Complaint – Rachael Noxon

I refer to your recent email about the Ciggybusters project.

We have checked with the organisers and all the people who had cigarettes taken off of them, and they were actors or willing participants. At no point did any smokers have their cigarettes taken without their permission.

This project, which looks at the dangers of smoking, was funded through a Community Chest grant by A Better Medway – a health campaign run by Medway Council and NHS Medway. Singling out the Tobacco Control Strategy Co-ordinator specifically as focus for your complaint is therefore inappropriate.

This project was something that was arranged and managed by the people that made the film, but neither Medway Council or NHS Medway would have condoned any activity that could cause offence.

The young people making the film, and the adults overseeing it, carefully stage-managed this to make sure that relevant organisations and participants were aware of the event in advance.

Everyone who took part knew what was happening and were not in any way offended. At no point were members of the public approached without their permission.

For these reasons I do not uphold your complaint.

Yours Sincerely
Naturally I'm being fobbed off. The main thrust of my complaint is that a Medway employee was, by encouraging the video (whether simulated or not), potentially guilty of incitement. The subsequent ambiguous statements by the participants since and lack of clarity in the video make this clear. At no point in the reply has this been addressed. Not only a criticism by me but also indicated by this Lib Dem councillor:

To get back to the facts of the case, the key questions were:

1/ Q: Were Ciggy Busters funded/ part-funded by Medway Council?
A: From press-reports, Yes

2/ Q: Were Ciggy Busters's plans approved by the police?
A: From press reports, yes, providing it involved only group members not unsuspecting members of the public.

3/ Q: Did Ciggy Busters involve unsuspecting members of the public?
A: From the statement by Gramenga, Yes

4/ Q: Would a resonable person have approved of Ciggy Busters project methods (surrounding people in the street and snatching their property)
A: No

5/ Q: Would a resonable person think that the actions of Ciggy Busters were illegal, if it was shown that they took property from members of the public?
A: Yes

6: Q: Were the member of the public doing anything illegal themseleves?
A: No - they were smoking in a public place (CHatham High Street)

7: Q: Even if all the people filmed in the video were actors/ members of the group, would a resonable person have approved of Ciggy Busters project methods (surrounding people in the street and snatching their property)?
A: No

8: Q: Do the actions of this group warrant further investigation?
A: Yes
I'm currently writing a response, I will post it on here when I can.

They don't see an issue because only actors were used and no one was involved who wasn't a willing participant. This is pure short sightedness on their part. Because it is now socially acceptable to treat smokers as sub-humans, they can't understand the real issue; that these people were condoning violence and theft towards smokers.
Many different analogies have been provided, such as removing burkas from Muslims, to show how wrong this action is. Any other minority, persecuted in such a manner, would have a case to answer. Not smokers. Smokers are not real humans with real rights. They are scum, to be treated in any manner you see fit.
No one else is going to fight our corner for us. Not the police, not the councils or governments. Its up to us.

Horsing around

Landlord loses his licence for allowing a horse to walk into his pub

More than 100 travellers descended on the Cross Keys pub in Erith, Kent, on August 15, and five of them simply rode their horses through the bar doors in a bid to get a drink.

The CCTV footage which could have come from a comedy Western shows a woman riding her horse into his pub.

The publican claimed he had the “situation under control”.

But licensing officer PC Eddy Boston said that even in Wild West movies, cowboys had “tethered their horses outside”.

Maybe this

would help.

Horseplay here and here

Friday Night Moose Music

Doing the rounds

I can't find anything to blog about today, (Barring my new found Kelly Osbourne fetish below) so here's some good posts I've spotted while doing the rounds recently:

Army Of Dave demonstrates his amazing scientific abilities in the "Skittlebrau Project".

Sir Olly makes mischief with the local CCTV camera car.

Gotty spots a comedy cop car.

Mud In The Blood has a nice pussy

The Waspsnest defines the Ph.D

All well worth a read.
Looking forward to this evenings Guinness. Have fun folks.

Kelly Osbourne is looking good these days

Institutional Sexism

This is an apology printed in the Lancashire Evening Telegraph today:

A story on Mon Jun 28th, referred to East Lancashire 'Dads' owing more than 40 million in child support payments..
Since five percent of the 2320 people involved were female we would like to make clear that the word 'parents' should have been used.

Hmm...

A Cut Above.

JOBS look set to be in jeopardy across Lancashire children’s homes and young people’s services as part of a major cuts package.

Good start, but why can't we use the word "Children" anymore? What does "Young People" really mean?

Conservative leaders at County Hall claim they have tried to minimise the impact on frontline operations, following reductions in Government grants totalling £22million.
But opposition councillors insist the most vulnerable will be hit hardest by a raft of spending cuts announced today.

Of course they do. That's another word I don't quite understand anymore. Vulnerable. What makes these people vulnerable? Vulnerable to whom, or what?

Around £400,000 will be saved from staffing costs at Lancashire’s children’s homes, with another £150,000 reduction earmarked for the young people’s service.

According to the Young People's Service Website, Young People are, in fact, children. So what does the YPS do that is such a vital frontline service for the vulnerable?

What do we do?

The YPS provides young people aged 11-25* and living in Lancashire with somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to – so that no matter where you live, what you are interested in or what issues you face, we hope we have something to offer you.
Whether you need practical help and support, information, advice or guidance or just want to join in something that’s fun, where you can make friends, the new YPS will have something for you.

So nothing important then. Nothing that couldn't be done by private business or even parents. Or even by children themselves, playing outside, jumpers for goalposts etc.

General job reviews across the children and young people’s and environment directorates will reduce spending by £961,000.
Labour leader Coun Jennifer Mein said the cuts were ‘unnecessary’ as Chancellor George Osborne did not need to reduce the area-based grant for councils this year.

Of course she did. £961,000 is a fair old chunk of cash. Cash that we would be better off saving in this economic climate regardless off her perceived "need" for reductions. The country has a huge deficit. Surely if we can save money then we should. Of course the "its not fair" lefties won't see it that way.

Coun Mohamed Iqbal, who represents Brierfield and Nelson North, said: “Clearly the Tory-controlled county council is following the lead of its coalition nationally.
“It would appear the most vulnerable, including young people and the elderly, will be hardest hit.”

There are those vulnerable again. How are the elderly going to be affected by cuts to children's homes and the YOUNG Peoples Service. Lefty whiners just seem to trot out the standard party line. And I ask again, who or what are the young and elderly vulnerable to, that Mr Iqbal feels a need to protect them from, at the expense of the tax payer. Lets look at that quote from the YPS again:

The YPS provides young people with somewhere to go, something to do and someone to talk to

So are  children vulnerable because they have nothing to do? Does Mr Iqbal need our money to protect other peoples children from the hideous monster of boredom? I think not.

Cuts of £50,000 to the teenage pregnancy service and £300,000 for the Connexions careers service also alarmed Hyndburn county councillor Ciaran Wells.
Coun Wells, of Great Harwood, added: “Unfortunately it appears that they are making choices which affect those who are least able to stand up for themselves in society.”

So pregnant teenagers need our money to help them stand up for themselves. What bollocks. I have a support service for pregnant teenagers that won't cost the taxpayer a penny. Parents.

And Mr Wells, as to the careers service. There is school and the job centre for that. We don't need to spend £300,000 to tell a bunch of underachievers that they would be better off, well, pregnant.

Other spending cuts, including £500,000 saved on the Pennine Reach quality bus route and the closure of Padiham household waste centre, have been reported previously.

A quality bus service should pay for itself. Period.

Council leader Coun Geoff Driver said: “We have asked managers to find ways of protecting them by saving money from non-frontline activities.
“But there is no escaping the fact Lancashire has to contribute to relieving the huge burden on public finances nationally.

Well said Mr Driver

“I am very clear that I will do my absolute utmost to protect services for the most vulnerable in the county.”

Oh, and you started so well.

The cuts total £10.98million, with £10million worth of performance grant-related schemes, across a range of directorates, having already been shelved.

Once the bleating has stopped, I doubt we will even notice these "services" missing.

*OK. 11-25 covers more than just children. I still prefer the term, Children and young adults, though.

.........And Then They Came For The Packed Lunches.......

First they came for the smokers . And we spoke up .
Now they come for the packed lunches:

Parents' anger as primary school teachers check kids' packed lunches

H/T Angry People In Local Newspapers

A CITY primary school has sparked anger after asking staff to confiscate food and drink from pupils’ lunch boxes.

Some parents of children at Childwall Valley CE primary say they are incensed at the lunchtime policing, and are considering feeding pupils at home instead - claiming their children have been left dehydrated and hungry.
The new healthy packed lunch policy started on Monday.
It has seen school staff scrutinise children’s lunch boxes at dinner time, with banned items removed.
The school today insisted all items are returned at the close of the day and pupils are offered healthy replacements for any items seized.
But parents have accused the school of double standards with the school’s own menu including chocolate brownie and ice cream.
The parents are furious the food seizures have gone ahead even though it took two days for the school to issue a letter clarifying exactly what items were banned.
These include fruit juice - something listed as permitted when the new policy was confirmed in a letter on March 19.

So, as the Nanny State develops into the Bully State, "Helping People Make Healthy Choices", turns into theft. Theft from smokers, with the blessing of the police, and now theft from children's lunch boxes. And who is responsible in both cases? Schools.

Schools are supposed to exist to educate the nations children. Education does not involve encouraging stealing. Be it by the children or from the children.

The school’s headteacher Kevin Basnett last night stressed the changes were done after a questionnaire and extensive consultation of parents, 86% of whom supported the move.

He said the policy met government guidelines and had been approved by Liverpool council and Liverpool PCT.
He stressed pupils’ bags were not searched and “everything taken is given back at the end of the day.”

This man has no business being employed by the education system. It is no business of his or anyone else's, what parents choose to feed their children. Giving the food back at the end of the day does not make it right. It is still theft and it is still state interference where it does not belong

I would like to see how extensive the consultation was and how he got 86% of parents to agree to it. I'm sure he didn't ask, "Are you ok with us dictating what you feed your children?".

GOVERNMENT backed, The School Food Trust encourages schools to adopt packed lunch policies to support healthier eating.

Support healthier eating or enforce it?

It also states “there is no statute which explicitly bans school staff from looking in a lunch box.”

Really. Well there bloody well should be. Even so, just because something is not specifically against the law, does not make it right. One of New Labours favourite policies was to legislate against every possible contingency. That's why there are now so many laws, you can't leave the house without breaking one. Common sense has been legislated out of British society. Common sense at least should tell this moron of a head teacher that what they are doing is just plain wrong.

If anyone wants a spleen vent, here's how:

Childwall Valley Primary School
Craighurst Road
Liverpool
Merseyside
L25 1NW
0151 7222544
childwallvalley-ao@childwallvalley.liverpool.sch.uk

They even have a Guestbook



Story also reported here