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Well guys and dolls, Im off for my Christmas vacation tommorow, so as from then the hoochykoochy journal will be closing down until January. As per usual I won't leave you without food for thought though, so I leave you with a number of issues for your consideration over the festive period.
Gordon Brown (U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer) will be todays first victim. The RT Hon gentleman has no doubt continually promoted himself as a potential Labour party leader, thus replacement Prime Minister for Tony Blair, but his latest budget has left me feeling a little confused about his intentions for the future of Great Britain. Firstly he decided to increase the Stamp Duty on house purchases, in order that the rise reflects the boom in the housing market over the last decade. To me that decision proved to be a double edged sword. In the UK the rise in housing prices has made purchases for most people starting out on the property ladder almost impossible and further shortfalls in appropriate housing, in combination with a substantial rise in the cost of renting, makes the 'average joes' dream of owning their own little castle to great a financial burden (remembering that those paying high rental prices don't have the funds to save towards getting onto the property ladder). The rise in stamp duty while intended to tax those with multi properties and property developers has a far wider impact on those who will only ever own one house at a time (you and me). Instead of taxing those who have only an interset in improving their standard of living, Mr Brown should have considered implimenting council tax obligations for those who own secondary properties. At the moment there is no obligation for those in multi ownership to pay full council taxation, instaed they are given huge levy's in order that they may acheive multi-ownership. The stamp duty increase only decreases the average families profit margins in house sales and removes the chance they have of improving their life quality. Bad choice Gordy!
Again he panders to the Alcoholics (most members of parliament) and freezes the duty on wines beers and spirits. While a tax on this would affect most (if not all), it makes little sense when the government appear to be promoting clean living. Recent statistics show that there has been a massive rise in alcohol related crime in the last decade, yet Gordons lack of taxation in this area shows that his policy does not mirror his parties one. It depends how you feel about this one, but my opinion is that although he has endevoured to keep the price of having fun down, maybe he could have imposed a taxation which appropriated some of the corporations profitablity rather than missing this area altogether. Points scoring will get you nowhere Gogs!
Cigarette smokers again carry the burden where the wider group of drinkers have failed to be taxed. A huge 7p hike in the price of tobbaco brings the budget in line with party policy, but a half of that would have done considering the smoking ban coming into effect in the UK in 2006, while placing the other 3.5p increase on booze. Effective, but discriminatory Gordza.
Sigh, again with the non-taxation of petrol and other such fuel pump services, Mr Brown forgets himself. While again this levy helps most normal people it fails to address the huge public safety implications of fossil fuel use. Rises in cancer cases, the ozone layer, kyoto treaty and the recent explosion in Hemelhemstead show that the chancellor is more interested in money than in public health and safety. In any case he has imposed huge taxes on the oil field companies which will do doubt affect the car user at the petrol pump and in their household bills. Mr Brown should use his huge influence to generate new business instead of promoting dying ones. Levys to firms intorducing new technology to road users instead of pandering to those who wreck our environment would have been more suitable. Clean air means clean living. Let us give the little man a chance to improve society instead of paving the way for the innovative centres at the already established companies to continue work after the wells run dry (i.e. Shell Enterprise establish and conduct multi-million pound research into new energy resources and almost definately already have the answers to the fuel crisis, but are happy to continue to make Billions of pound of profit yearly without paying nearly enough for their detriment to society). An underacheivement - could do much better Googles!
Further concessions to corporate taxes show us the real face of Gordon Brown. His winter fuel allowances for OAPs and increases in family orientated benefits are piecemeal offerings when you consider the amonts of money being wasted on ill-thought country invasions and the total mess of all of the civil services. Also count on 9 million per year being wasted in admin costs in the Scottish Parliament, no doubt being doubled in Westminster totalling a huge £27 million in wasted revenue that could have been better spent on something worthwhile. Take into account the lack of help for the rising number of single males and females, who remain content with the single life and we begin to see a system that smacks of imperialism and pandering to big business. Sounds ever so slightly Tory Gordon!
George Bush will be the next target of todays discussion. I absolutely wet myself last night when I heard his 'apology' for screwing up Iraq. He finally came out and said that 'We were wrong' for the invasion of Iraq, but that wasn't the funny part. What was funny was the way he tried to justify his actions. Firstly he blamed the intelligence agencies and then all the other countries (even those who didn't go to war), and then turned around and said HE instigated a new democratic system into Iraq (which isn't democratic), and that he had implimented policies which would rectify the failings og the intelligence agencies. Absolutely incredible. No, 'damn I'm sorry we got the WMD thing wrong, which resulted in the dealth of Dr Kelly (suicide)', No, 'I'm sorry for feeding you guys which have been the victims of terrorist attacks causing the deaths of thousands, with duff information'. No, 'Damn I'm an incompetent fool who is only interested in oil revenue, which incidentaly we now have, which increases my financial standing giving me a nice little nest egg for when I have to retire before some fanatic blows my brain out with a high powered elephant gun'. No 'Well actually god wasn't talking to me, it was just my wallet telling me to go for it', and most importantly No, 'I'm sorry for the Human Rights atrocities that are now occuring in Iraq, the lack of clean water and electricity, the deaths of thousands of innocent citizens and the deaths of all the soldiers whom have died during the conflict. Instead it's 'I'm the man and your all ***kers'. I'm telling you what if you continue to back this fool, he will bring a war upon us that will end all wars.
Tony Blair next. Well to be fair he is trying to address the energy crisis, but the past weekends massive explosion in Hemelhemstead has brought home the dangers of having inland energy resources which place the general publics safety at risk. A huge catastrophe was avoided, because of luck and not because health and safety protections. Such an explosion could have killed thousands, but the ramifications of the event have not yet been fully felt. What damage has the huge ploom of smoke done to the SE of Englands environment? How many actually died in the tragedy? Why did it happen? Remain unanswered at this time, but when you consider that Tony Blair issued his intent to establish a number of Nuclear Power Stations throughout the UK, only a week or two before, an event like this highlights the clear and present danger such places entail. There are alternatives. Tony should be using the money available to him to speed up research into renewable energy sources instead of wasting billions on building institutions which are a serious danger to those around them. Come on Tony, if nothing else this should have brought this issue right into your head.
Lastly Scottish Parliament are gonna get it. The recent release of information regarding the administartion expenditure of the MSP's highlight the cost of an underahceiving local gvernment. £9 Million is way to much money to be wasting of anyones, but least of all that of the people of Scotland. Travel expenses for MSP's travelling to and from their constituencies appears to be the biggest waste, while the parliament continues to pussyfoot around the issues that matter. The Scotland Act 1998 was designed in order that the new devolved Parliament would give the people of Scotland a voice. Having watch many times debates on television and visting the Parliament to watch a committee meeting debate the formulation of legislation, the only voices I can hear are the MSP's. It's time to increase consultation and education by using the latest technology, in order that Scotland moves towards the 'Total Democracy' which the countries of the world claim to wish to acheive, instead of protecting their own positions and advancing their careers. Look forward to December 2007 where I will be releasing a white paper which will analyse democracy from its humble beginnings, through the ages, highlighting it's faults and misuse and ultimately what true democracy is and a solution to acheiving that aim. The paper will be called 'The Road to Democracy and its Final Destination', By K.H. Grant.
Have a blinding Christmas everybody! See y'all in the New Year!
Great post!
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