In launching the Queen’s Speech, the Government has said that fighting the economic downturn is its over-riding priority for the year ahead. It’s difficult to see how many of the Bills will make any difference on this front. Waging a war on booze and lap-dancing bars, which as far as I can tell is the sum of what the Queen’s Speech adds up to, will have the opposite affect &ndash...

Two in three councils are planning or considering extra rises in council tax amid fears funding is going to dry up.

Camden Council is current going through is annual process of budget-setting. An early indication of the intention of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, as indicated by the Executive in November, is for an ‘inflation’ increase of 2.5% in council tax. This figure is the same as the target for the year before, meaning that council leaders have not taken any account of the downtu...

What is the bloody point of getting togged up like this, and then leaking the QS to the media Basically a multi millionaire, who has only within recent years 'elected' to pay income tax, is going to stand up in front of a load of work shy self interested expense account traducers, and say we are all screwed and we will have to produce our papers everywhere we go.

This video is a fun way of whiling away ten minutes. I could argue with details, but he does make some good points:

The Calman Commission has ruled against fiscal autonomy for Scotland, arguing that it would be inconsistent with the Union, the BBC reports. But would it? Unionism and tax raising powers do not have to be mutually exclusive . In fact, one could argue from a unionist perspective that ‘no taxation without representation’ (or ‘no representation

Just quite how stupid are they? FFS, people respond to incentives! Faced with a relatively cushy life on the dole and total withdrawal rates of approx. 80% of wages (i.e. you lose 31% of your wages in income tax/National Insurance, plus you lose JSA, Housing Benefit and Council Tax benefit worth around a third of an average salary, plus you lose another 39p in Working Tax Credits for every £...

Another video on tax havens from the Centre for Freedom and Prosperity:

The Danegeld ("Danish tax") was a tax raised to pay tribute to the Viking raiders to save a land from being ravaged. It was characteristic of royal policy in both England and Frankland during the ninth through eleventh centuries. This is bullshit. I refer to the plan of Ian Duncan Knob Jockey to reward good behaviour on council estates by letting people buy their squalid, litter strewn shacks at a...

VAT Day in Leeds yesterday was almost a non-event, swamped by larger reductions on everything in sight. "Not a single shopper's mentioned it all day," said Malik, selling two pashminas for £8 at a freezing stall in Briggate - "it" being the official start of Alistair Darling's 2.5% reduction in the tax. A scribbled "thank you, Darling" on Marks & Spencer posters hurried out...