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A brilliant reply by Lorenzo1 to George Osborne's article: "My pledge to public sector workers"
The subtitle of this article by George Osborne was “The shadow chancellor explains why the Conservatives are the true defenders of public servants”. The actual article and comments are located on this website (click here for the link). All of the comments were extremely damning.
They’re all worth-a-read by Osborne himself, especially that of Lorenzo who writes at 6 April 2010 10:58PM,
George Osborne – perhaps the least qualified man to run the economy. A man and a party who have called it wrong and changed their minds so many times it really would be impossible to trust a word they say.
But George, let’s start being a bit grown up and stop peddling that silly little tabloid headline of “Tax on Jobs” – I am sure Andy Coulson (a man of questionable values but no doubt good at conjuring up snappy tabloid headlines from his days at the nasty News of the World) loves you saying it but it really is meaningless. Bit like the scaremongering you lot and the business cronies did over minumum wage. Didn’t cost jobs did it George? And NI? Won’t cost jobs either, prices may go up a tiny tiny amount or god forbid shareholders don’t get all their free money…but come on George, you know it’s not really the detail you get wrong but the whole macro economics thing.
Must be a bit embarrassing to always be corrected by better educated, more knowledgeable and frankly more believable and likable people than yourself. Particularly when you want people to at least think you know what you’re doing. But you don’t. Not a clue. Time to be honest George maybe give politics and economics business a rest I hear Selfridges may be taking on staff…
From Ian Robathan : George Osborne and the last resort of desperate governments
“Printing money is the last resort of desperate governments when all other policies have failed. It can’t be ruled out as a last resort in the fight against deflation, but in the end printing money risks losing control of inflation and all the economic problems that high inflation brings.”
George Osborne
Remember these words in a few hours’ time..
As Ian Robathan who unearthed this little treasure in his journal ‘Labour News’, words do have a habit of coming back to haunt you!
Shibley Rahman exclusive: Iain Fale meets Alice Cooper away from the BBC
Rumours are circling around Westminster that @iain_fale also met up with Alice Cooper, while @iaindale was reviewing the papers this morning on the Andrew Marr show. The topic of conversation was how best to present compassionate conservative education policy, under market-led Toby Young and demolition job-led Michael Gove. This is being considered as a possible anthem.
The warped logic of Gideon Osborner
Somebody who is definitely worth following on Twitter is a young chap called ‘Gideon Osborner’.
This is his most recent Avatar.
I received a reply from him this evening:
@shibleylondon: “Count has two fingers ; sound familiar?” < in these days of cuts a lot of people make do with giving me one #yah?
That just about sums up the flawed logic, doesn’t it. I was remarking on the fact that most people would happily show him the two finger salute in a different context. However, Osborner’s flawed logic is why have 2 fingers when you can make do perfectly well with one. I suppose the same goes for legs. Apart from the fact you can’t do anything that is….
shibleyrahman.com first ever political survey 2010
This is the first year that shibleyrahman.com has run a poll of political journalists, commentators and presenters. Unlike the Total Politics poll, this poll is not interested in how influential you feel that these people are in the political and media scene.
I am therefore not concerned what you feel about what other feel; I consider that this is totally misleading and unhelpful. I am only interested in how useful you find the person’s professional analysis, and what impact you feel their analysis has on your considered judgment . You certainly do not have to rate every journalist mentioned, just rate the ones you have an opinion on.
There are questions, covering many different types of journalists, reporters, sketch-writers, presenters and bloggers, in different types of media, such as radio, TV, broadsheets and the internet.
The survey should take about 5-10 minutes to complete, considerably shorter than Total Politics’ survey, but this of course entirely dependent on how many people you rate! So remember, 1 is the lowest mark and 10 is the highest. Remember, you are rating them for their level of influence.
Many thanks for taking part!
Dr Shibley Rahman
You can take part in the survey by clicking here.
These are the questions this year:
Columnists and commentators
Please rate the following political columnists and commentators by how useful you find their political analysis and how much impact they have on your judgments. You do not have to rate every journalist mentioned, for example ones you have never one, but please just rate the ones you have an opinion on. Remember, 1 is the lowest mark and 10 is the highest. Not all professionals are represented.
Andrew Grice, The Independent
Andrew Porter, Daily Telegraph
Andrew Sparrow, The Guardian
Anushka Asthana, The Observer
Ben Brogan, Daily Telegraph
Bob Roberts, Daily Mirror
Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph
Daniel Finklestein, The Times
Dave Wooding, News of the World
Dominic Lawson, The Independent
Fraser Nelson, The Spectator/News of the World
Iain Martin, Wall Street Journal
Ian Drury, Daily Mail
Isabelle Oakeshott, Sunday Times
Jackie Ashley, The Guardian
Jake Morris, Daily Mirror
James Lyons, Daily Mirror
James MacIntyre, New Statesman
Janet Daley, The Telegraph
Jason Beattie, Daily Mirror
Jean Eaglesham, Financial Times
Jim Pickard, Financial Times
Johann Hari, Independent/Huffington Post
Jonathan Freedland, The Guardian/The Jewish Chronicle
Julia Hartley-Brewer, Sunday Express
Kevin Maguire, Daily Mirror
Kirsty Walker, Daily Mail
Marie Woolf, Sunday Times
Martin Bright, Jewish Chronicle
Matthew Parris, The Times
Mehdi Hasan, New Statesman
Melanie Philips, Daily Mail
Michael White, The Guardian
Nick Cohen, The Observer/New Statesman
Nigel Morris, The Independent
Patrick Hennessy, Daily Telegraph
Patrick Wintour, The Guardian
Peter Hitchens, Mail on Sunday
Peter Oborne, Daily Telegraph
Polly Toynbee, The Guardian
Rachel Sylvester, The Times
Robert Winnett, Daily Telegraph
Roland Watson, The Times
Sam Coates, The Times
Simon Heffer, Daily Telegraph
Simon Jenkins, Guardian/Sunday Times
Steve Richards, The Independent
Suzanne Moore, Mail on Sunday
Toby Helm, The Observer
Trevor Kavanagh The Sun
Broadsheet sketch-writers
Please rate the following political sketch-writers by how useful you find their work, and how much impact they have on your judgments. You do not have to rate every journaist mentioned, for example ones you have never one, but please just rate the ones you have an opinion on. Remember, 1 is the lowest mark and 10 is the highest. Not all professionals are represented.
Andrew Gimson (Telegraph)
Ann Treneman (Times)
Quentin Letts (Mail)
Simon Carr (Independent)
Simon Hoggart (Guardian)
TV presenters and news reporters
Please rate the following TV presenters and news reporters by how useful you find their political analysis, and how much impact they have on your judgments. You do not have to rate every journalist mentioned, for example ones you have never one, but please just rate the ones you have an opinion on. Remember, 1 is the lowest mark and 10 is the highest. Not all professionals are represented.
Alex Forrest, ITN
Andrew Marr, BBC
Andrew Neil, BBC/This Week
Andy Bell, Five News
Anita Anand, Five Live
Ben Brown, BBC
Ben Wright, BBC
Carole Walker, BBC
Cathy Newman, Channel 4 News
Chris Ship, ITV News
David Dimbleby, BBC
Diane Abbott, This Week
Emily Maitlis, BBC
Gary Gibbon, Channel 4 News
Gavin Esler, BBC
James Landale, BBC
Jane Hill, BBC
Jeremy Paxman, BBC
Jo Coburn, BBC
Jon Snow, Channel 4 News
Kirsty Wark, BBC
Krishnan Gurumurty, Channel 4 News
Lucy Manning, ITN
Michael Crick, BBC
Michael Portillo, This Week
Niall Paterson, Sky News
Nick Robinson, BBC
Peter Spencer, Sky News
Reeta Chakrabarti, BBC
Samana Haq, ITN
Tom Bradby, ITV News
Vicky Young, BBC
Radio presenters and commentators
Please rate the following political radio presenters and commentators by how useful you find their political analysis. You do not have to rate every journalist mentioned, for example ones you have never one, but please just rate the ones you have an opinion on. Remember, 1 is the lowest mark and 10 is the highest. Not all professionals are represented.
Betsan Powys, BBC Wales
Eddie Barnes, Scotland on Sunday
Eddie Mair, Radio 4
Edward Stourton, Radio 4
Elinor Goodman, Radio 4
Evan Davis Radio 4
Gary O’Donoghue, BBC News
James Naughtie, Radio 4
Jeremy Vine, Radio 2
John Humphrys, Radio 4
John Pienaar, BBC TV and Five Live
Jonathan Dimbleby, Radio 4
Mark D’Arcy, Radio 4
Martha Kearney, Radio 4
Nicky Campbell, Five Live
Richard Bacon, Five Live
Ross Hawkins, BBC News
Sarah Montague, Radio 4
Shelagh Fogarty, Five Live
Victoria Derbyshire, Five Live
Political and lifestyle bloggers
Please rate the following political internet bloggers by how useful you find their political analysis, and how much impact they have on your judgments. You do not have to rate every journalist mentioned, for example ones you have never one, but please just rate the ones you have an opinion on. Remember, 1 is the lowest mark and 10 is the highest. Not all professionals are represented.
Alastair Campbell http://www.alastaircampbell.org/blog.php
Alex Hilton http://www.labourhome.org/
Claire French http://clairefrench.co.uk
David Alexander Hough http://politicalpundits.co.uk/?author=26
Guido Fawkes http://order-order.com/
John Redwood http://www.johnredwoodsdiary.com/
Kerry McCarthy http://www.kerry-mccarthy.blogspot.com/
Luke Akehurst http://lukeakehurst.blogspot.com/
Mark Ferguson http://www.labourlist.org/
Mark Pack http://www.markpack.org.uk/
Mike Denham http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/
Phil Hendren http://dizzythinks.net/
Shibley Rahman http://shibleyrahman.com
Sunder Katwala http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/
Sunny Hundal http://www.liberalconspiracy.org/
Tom Harris http://www.tomharris.org.uk/
Walaa Idris http://www.walaaidris.com
Will Straw http://www.leftfootfwd.org
Political Scrapbook http://politicalscrapbooknet
Think Politics blog http://thinkpolitics.co.uk/tpblogs/
Robin Bogg’s spot http://boggsblub.blogspot.com
Free Gary MacKinnon http://tweetstorm4gary.wordpress.com
Red Rag Online http://www.redragonline.com
The Spiderplant http://www.spiderplantland.co.uk
Young Labour Politico Blogger http://blogtomscholesfogg.co.uk/
One Nation Tory http://onenationtory.com/
The Right Way http://piemandmu.blogspot.com/
Obnoxio the Clown http://obotheclown.blogspot.com/
Chris Mills http://www.chrismills.me.uk
Mind the Tax Gap! by Kerry Fairless
Many thanks to Kerry Fairless who is the guest writer of this blog post.
Those of you who have the pleasure of one my rants will be aware of the Missing Billions. Those that haven’t read on.
The main revenue collecting method used by Government is via the taxation system. It’s a complex system based on earnings and relief. Many people (you and I) pay our tax through Pay As You Earn (PAYE). This is deducted from source by the employer who then pays HMRC what is due. For people like you and I, we pay our dues. We have no choice in the matter.
For others there are other systems such as Self Assessment (SA) where the individual is responsible for payment of tax directly to HMRC; this usually involves the use of an accountant. Of course for this group of people there is a choice about to declare, how to argue reliefs and business usage. Some make mistakes, some intentionally defraud.
Businesses of course pay different types of tax, the most obvious being Value Added Tax (VAT). Much like SA, accountants are usually required and there is a plethora of complicated legislation to follow. Again, this system involves mistakes, error and intentional avoidance.
You would think that HMRC would like everyone to be paying the right amount of tax, on time. For those that can’t pay there is a Debt Management process whereby members of DMB attempt to collect backdated, unpaid taxes and over payments of Tax Credits.
Of course, thanks to the slashing of 25000 jobs there aren’t as many of us as there used to be. And thanks to reduced budgets our computer systems aren’t as robust as they should be. This recently has resulted in mayhem of the over and under payment of PAYE where the computer system combined with the lack of staff has lead to a massive amount of errors and individuals being left with hefty bills to pay. This was avoidable if the correct number of resources had been employed and a properly tested, flexible computer system had been employed. This was something PCS negotiators told the Department 3 years ago, but as usual they believed they knew best. Maybe they should be saying “sorry” to the millions effected for not listening to us. I wont, however, hold my breath.
The Tax Gap is made up of the amount of money HMRC collects through tax compared to the amount of money HMRC could collect through tax. Present estimates have this figure as between £42bn (HMRC’s figure – which does not include £28bn in written off and uncollected debt) and £123bn (PCS’s figure based on independent research by Richard Murphy). So, whatever way you look at it, we can guarantee there is a minimum of £70bn out there that should be going to pay for public services, reducing the deficit.
This money is made up by those who…….
a. avoid pay tax by illegal methods
b. evade paying tax by making errors
c. use tax havens such as the Turks and Caicos islands
These people and businesses do not fully contribute to the running of the country, yet continue to reap the benefits of living here and using services provided by those of us who do pay our fair share in tax.
As you will no doubt know, the Chancellor announced his Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR). This will have a detrimental effect on everyone be it through services no longer being provided, reduced welfare, higher unemployment, poorer education and poorer health as billions of pounds will be cut from budgets.
There is an alternative, collect those Missing Billions.
Now for the mathematics part….
The below table is based on the PCS figure and the HMRC figure, the population estimates are taken from wikipedia. The Compliance Officer figure is taken from a Parliamentary Question tabled a couple of years that identified that everyone in Compliance makes £658k a year clear profit (ie, salaries and overheads are already taken off).
If you divide the tax gap figure by the population, you will see how much each person in the country would need to pay to clear the tax gap. By PCS estimates its £1983 and by HMRC figures it is £677. If you then multiply those figures by the population of the town (and of course this is just Southend, it doesn’t include places such as Benfleet, Rayleigh etc) you will identify how much the tax gap is locally. Take that figure and divide it by the $658k a Compliance Officer can collect and you will identify how many additional people it would take to collect that money. This of course does not include any of the processing staff or contact centre staff who would need to be employed in the back office to ensure payments are processed and queries dealt with.
So, at a time where we are facing a 15% cut in staff, we should in fact being looking at an increase of somewhere between 169 and 495 in Southend and as many as 186930 nationwide.
PCS Tax Gap Figure £123billion R&C Tax Gap Figure £42billion
population 62041708 population 62041708
per head £1983 per head £677
Southend 164300 Southend 164300
Tax Gap Southend £325.7m Tax Gap Southend £111.2m
compliance officer £658000 compliance officer £658000
additional jobs Southend 495 additional jobs Southend 169
additional jobs UK 186930 additional jobs UK 63830
Whilst the Government continue to cut jobs from HMRC, the Tax Gap will continue to grow. The entire basis of the CSR is to reduce the national deficit by cutting. The alternative is to properly invest in HMRC and collect the Missing Billions.
The Tax Justice Campaign has been running for several years now. Foreign media are very interested in it, some MPs are very interested in but the UK media does not want to publish this national scandal. Ask yourselves why. Look at who owns the national media, look where they bank, see how much tax they pay!
Write to your MP now and ask why the Missing Billions is not being collected.
Tomorrow is the Coalition's 'bad news day'
This is my lasting memory of news as I was growing up in the 1970s.
How things have changed.
Tomorrow the Coalition will try to sneak out as much bad news as possible tomorrow, in the hope that nobody notices. I wonder what horrors we have in store on page 15?
1. Part privatisation of University College Hospital.
2. Total corporate restructuring of the NHS by 2020.
3. Stricter anti-union (anti-strike) legislation.
4. An increase in VAT.
5. An increase in income tax.
6. Theresa May is reshuffled to Work and Pensions.
7. Baroness Warsi is reshuffled to the Home Office.
8. The spending reviews will be worse than originally expected.
9. Graduate tax to come in for any graduate after 2010.
10. Disability benefit will be cut by 5%.
Any ideas?
