Not your fault? Oh, but I'm afraid it is.

Have you ever been on the phone to a Government department, or been down the local offices trying to speak to someone on the front desk?

Maybe your council tax has just gone up and you want someone to explain why they think you will have the extra cash to pay it. Maybe you've got a bill from HMRC explaining that they made an error with your tax code and you owe them 400 quid.

Has it seemed like you are getting nowhere. Have you ever got angry with this person and then stepped back and said,

"I'm sorry, I know it isn't your fault, but....."

? If so, read on while I explain your mistake. You see, it is their fault. They may not have increased your council tax themselves, but they are still responsible. It may not be the person you are speaking with that messed up your tax code calculations, never the less, it is still their error and their responsibility.

Why?

There are 650 people in Parliament. It may only be a small percentage of them who make a police decision, but that decision may affect everyone in the country.

I'll give you an example. In order to help combat the huge public debt, the government has decided to increase everyones income tax by 1p in the pound. How do they put this into practice?

650 people cannot go round to everyone in the country who is earning a wage and ask for the cash.

The government already takes over fifty percent of our earnings in tax, to do what they please with. Taking tax from fifteen million people is a mammoth undertaking. It requires a huge infrastructure of people and assets.

It's not just tax collectors and bailiffs etc. It takes clerical staff, reception staff and call center staff.

It takes printers to print the bills and all the endless forms.

It takes IT support staff to look after all the computer systems.

Suppliers to furnish the offices and keep the stationery stocked up.

It even takes a small army of cleaners to empty the bins and hoover up at the end of the day.

If you are one of those people reading this, you may think, I'm not responsible for policy but I do have to work to feed my family etc. Are you happy that the job you do makes a system possible that piles misery on many, many people?

To force people like me and you to hand over half of their wage packet at the end of the week, requires many other people, just like me and you.

Anybody who says it's not their fault is wrong. Anybody who works for the system, helps make that system possible.

Remind them of this next time you happen to be talking to them.