Death and taxes - by Richard... Monday, October 17, 2011

Death and taxes - by Richard... Monday, October 17, 2011

The Daily Mail continues to pick up on the theme of council charges, highlighting the increases in charges for burial plots. Death and taxes are not only certainties – but are coinciding. It cites Caerphilly in South Wales, where the cost of burial plots will more than double over the next five years from £1,043 to £2,437. In Watford, the paper says, the price for plots doubled from £405 to £810 in April.

While that paper is to be commended for raising the issue (no other nationals seem to have noticed, apart from the ST with Booker), what it does not seem to have realised is the scale of these charges.

As of 2009-10, they exceeded £25 billion for the first time and, with the current torrent of charges being announced – increasing at a rate of well over a billion each year - we will see the total income exceed that of Council Tax.

Effectively, that means that the true rate of local taxation – albeit heavily disguised – is twice that of the headline Council Tax rate, costing households an additional £1000 a year on average, with no real say on how the councils spread the burden.

The relationship between Council Tax and charges is seen clearly in this report, where a "freeze" on Council Tax in Sheffield – following a grant from central government of £4.9 million – is translated into an increase of charges "by up to three per cent".

On the other hand, the weakness of central government is seen in a statement from Housing Minister Grant Shapps. He warns councils not to use local people as cash cow. "If local authorities cut excessive chief executive pay, share back offices and root out wild overspends they can safeguard frontline services", he says.

With that, local authorities are already intent on milking their residents for as much as they can get away with, and our updated "Greed Index", now with 25 councils, shows that many are not fussy about the source of their money.

This is not quite a ten percent sample (although it probably covers ten percent of the householders who actually pay Council Tax), and nor is it properly randomised. But, on the basis of what we have collected so far, we seem to be looking at an impost of about £220 million last year. This current year, the amount will probably be closer to £250 million, with so many councils having increased their charges.

What, of course, distinguishes the charges here – for summonses and liability orders – is that the larger part is undoubtedly illegal, amounting to a structured theft in excess of £200 million each year.

From the latest figures, what also comes over is the huge range of charges. Bradford – which stays at the top of the league – extracts £16.89 per capita, more than eight times the average amount levied by the lowest (East Dorset), on £2.05 – and twice the overall average.

Returns continue to be slow coming in, and many are still incomplete, but the process goes on and we will continue until it is complete – even if every one of the defaulters have to be referred to the Information Commissioner.

The fundamental point illustrated by the Index, though, is that councils have become so greedy and so arrogant, that they have lost sight of the law and are stealing money. And this gives us the opportunity to challenge them in the courts, which is currently in the planning stage.

But it also illustrates our original premise that councils, and their spending, is out of control. Grant Shapps demonstrates that central government has no real control, and if anyone really thinks the electoral system gives voters any better control, then they are in the land of a fayries.

As local government accounts for nearly one quarter of public expenditure (£162 billion in 2009-10), the idea that there such be such slender control over such large amounts of money is unacceptable. And the longer term answer to that is obvious.

That's revenge? - by Richard...

The operative was blocked in, so he called a colleague for assistance and for the police to attend, "as he felt increasingly distressed and threatened and had been unable to leave". After police "intervention", the family end up paying an increased fee of £660. And that's revenge? But whose revenge?

Who is this "we"? - by Richard...

The Ernst & Young ITEM Club, which uses the Treasury’s forecasting models, warns today that the economic situation is "worse than we thought", says the Failygraph. But actually, it's you … wehave known this all along. Just you lot, in the bubble – the so-called "experts" – you are the ones having difficulty coming to grips with reality.

The clue lies in the comment, "George Osborne, the Chancellor, and Tim Geithner, the US Treasury Secretary, are becoming increasingly exasperated at the lacklustre response of European leaders to the ongoing single currency crisis".
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The reason why the response is "lacklustre" is because it is being treated as a political crisis – which to the "colleagues" it is – rather than an economic issue. The integrity of the EU and the eurozone comes first. They would see the global economy wrecked before they will give up on their integrationalist dream.

And that is why the euro is going to collapse. That is why it was always going to collapse. That it is "worse that we thought" is simply a reflection of the opaqueness of the bubble in which you live.

Help when you need it (not) - by Richard...

Remember this from last year, and this? We have there the story of the incorrectly-fitted condensing boilers, which during the winter freeze cost thousands of their unfortunate owners hundreds of pounds to sort them out after their drains had frozen up.

If ever there was an issue that should have been sorted by government, it is this – the boilers became a statutory requirement in 2005 (for all new installations) and there is clear evidence that installers failed to fit them correctly.

But despite intervention by Tory MP Philip Dunne, absolutely nothing has been done. With more than eight million having been installed though,British Gas – which has sold almost a million of them – is now urging its customers to fit a new cold-resistant pipe. In a letter to 46,000 customers who suffered boiler breakdowns last year, the energy giant is saying it will fit the new pipe for £149.

So, despite it having been responsible for many of the faulty installations, it wants to charge its customers for remedying the problems it caused. And just so that you know whose side the government is on, the Department of Energy and Climate Change declined to comment on the issue. A spokesman said: "Customers should take this up with British Gas".

It is so nice to know they care.

I am not going mad - by Richard... Sunday, October 16, 2011

… but, as I read with growing incredulity, the mounting eulogies, about the latter-day saint, Liam Fox, to say nothing about the staggering drivel being written on the subject, even I begin to wobble.

On that, I had a recent talk with one of my bestist friends, the Dellers, who did point out that I am agin an awful lot of things and people. So, with "everyone else" singing the praises of Fox, how is it that I (and Booker) can claim to be right in assessing him as a loser?

Then you have to do a double-take. Earlier this year, the general consensus was that the SDSR had been botched. As recently as August this year, even the mighty Telegraph was saying: "This newspaper has warned repeatedly that the SDSR was botched because it was driven not by strategic requirements but by cost-cutting" (piece illustrated above).

And now, after being driven out of office under the tawdriest of circumstances, he becomes the great hero? Why? What is going on here?

The clue might be in the fatuous Montgomerie. Fox has been the champion of the enfeebled Tory "right", who have taken him to their hearts. To admit that their hero has feet of clay - that he always was a low-grade loser - is to admit that their judgement is flawed. That will never do, so history has to be re-written.

But I am not wrong on this. As we pointed put earlier, the SDSR was a failure. And while the strategic direction from Cameron was indeed seriously lacking, much of the failure must be put down to Fox.

That the Tory "right" and its supporting media cannot see straight on this is thus a reflection of them, not me (or Booker). Furthermore, if anyone can't see that a secretary of state who indulges is such a tacky relationship with his associate isn't fundamentally a wrong un, they need to think very seriously about themselves.

All this seems to be part of the political malaise from which we are suffering, though. But if we take our political thinking from the sad crew who can't see straight or think straight, then we are a sad bunch as well. And yes, I'm agin a lot of things … but there are a lot of things to be agin.