Crosswords0 min ago
Another Privatisation Flop.
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£500 million wasted on just one of Chris Grayling's failed ideological experiments, yet the staggeringly incompetent Tory buffoon is still in government, and now presiding over one failure after another as Transport Secretary.
If the UK had anything resembling a decent press then this scandalously expensive privatisation failure would be headline news. Instead it's barely being covered except a couple of articles in the Guardian and Mirror, with the others too intent on propagating Hard Right dogma.
So serially incompetent Tories like Chris Grayling simply aren't held to account, and get to shift from one government department to another leaving enormous and ridiculously expensive trails of destruction in their wake.
Privatisation of public services is Robin Hood in reverse - taxpayers money being trousered by rich shareholders and obscenely overpaid Boardroom blunderers.
£500 million wasted on just one of Chris Grayling's failed ideological experiments, yet the staggeringly incompetent Tory buffoon is still in government, and now presiding over one failure after another as Transport Secretary.
If the UK had anything resembling a decent press then this scandalously expensive privatisation failure would be headline news. Instead it's barely being covered except a couple of articles in the Guardian and Mirror, with the others too intent on propagating Hard Right dogma.
So serially incompetent Tories like Chris Grayling simply aren't held to account, and get to shift from one government department to another leaving enormous and ridiculously expensive trails of destruction in their wake.
Privatisation of public services is Robin Hood in reverse - taxpayers money being trousered by rich shareholders and obscenely overpaid Boardroom blunderers.
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This is just a small example of the money our government wastes.
A few years ago I read this book, Blunders of our Governments by Anthony King and Ivor Crewe.
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It is the sort of book that makes you want to cry, how our politicians (from all parties) create huge schemes that then cost millions, are wide open to fraud, and in the end serve little or no purpose.
It covers all sorts of projects -
Tony Blair's Individual Learning Account fraud (thousands of fake learners signed up to claim the money for free training, often hundreds from the same address.)
The Poll Tax
London Dome / OS2 Arena
London Underground privatisation (this cost so much money nobody has even been able to find out how much it cost)
The Benefits system
EU farm subsidies
And so on.
Read it and weep.
A few years ago I read this book, Blunders of our Governments by Anthony King and Ivor Crewe.
https:/
It is the sort of book that makes you want to cry, how our politicians (from all parties) create huge schemes that then cost millions, are wide open to fraud, and in the end serve little or no purpose.
It covers all sorts of projects -
Tony Blair's Individual Learning Account fraud (thousands of fake learners signed up to claim the money for free training, often hundreds from the same address.)
The Poll Tax
London Dome / OS2 Arena
London Underground privatisation (this cost so much money nobody has even been able to find out how much it cost)
The Benefits system
EU farm subsidies
And so on.
Read it and weep.
imagine corbyn in power unleashing public funds on his hair brained
schemes qe2 at port in libya to pickup all the africans who want to come to britain, let alone raf transport planes becoming africa rescue service taxi's, anyone with extra bedrooms in there houses have to put up a family or two...except his of course, all Palestinians welcome, hamas included, lets make the uk.. venezuela its utopia.
schemes qe2 at port in libya to pickup all the africans who want to come to britain, let alone raf transport planes becoming africa rescue service taxi's, anyone with extra bedrooms in there houses have to put up a family or two...except his of course, all Palestinians welcome, hamas included, lets make the uk.. venezuela its utopia.
No wonder the yanks voted Trump in I hate the so and so.... However, they wanted change and went for it. Whether they have got what they wanted or deserved, at least it sent an underlined message out. I just wish we could do the same here.... But what or who are the alternative.? Answers on a postcard to Jeremy Vine....cough cough.... Best send it intergalactic for a response......sigh
"The Poll Tax"
There was nothing wrong with the Community Charge (to give it its correct title). It was an effort to replace domestic rates with a fairer system that saw, for example, a house with two parents and three adult children (all working) pay more for their local services than a pensioner couple living on a fixed income of a small pension. It broke the connection between the charge levied and the value of the property occupied, which was never in the remotest way fair.
The Domestic Council Tax which replaced the Community charge simple meant reversion to a system with all the unfairness and downsides that the Domestic Rates demonstrated. Nobody has ever been able to explain to me why the Domestic Rates and Domestic Council Tax are somehow deemed acceptable whereas the Community Charge was not. The former both levy a tax based on a relative notional value of the property occupied and take no account of the number of earning occupants living in that property.
There was nothing wrong with the Community Charge (to give it its correct title). It was an effort to replace domestic rates with a fairer system that saw, for example, a house with two parents and three adult children (all working) pay more for their local services than a pensioner couple living on a fixed income of a small pension. It broke the connection between the charge levied and the value of the property occupied, which was never in the remotest way fair.
The Domestic Council Tax which replaced the Community charge simple meant reversion to a system with all the unfairness and downsides that the Domestic Rates demonstrated. Nobody has ever been able to explain to me why the Domestic Rates and Domestic Council Tax are somehow deemed acceptable whereas the Community Charge was not. The former both levy a tax based on a relative notional value of the property occupied and take no account of the number of earning occupants living in that property.
"It was unfair and ill thought out."
So I'm told. But nobody has been able to explain why it was unfair but why the system it replaced (and which replaced it) is deemed acceptable. But I think I may be able to help:
"Most people I know all ended up paying several hundred pounds more than the old system."
Certainly some people ended up paying more. They were probably among those I mentioned who lived in multi-occupancy households where it was determined that it would be fairer to levy the charge on a per capita basis. But I'm yet to receive an explanation why charging each adult in a household a community charge is unfair but charging the household as a whole - regardless of the number of occupants - is somehow so much fairer.
So I'm told. But nobody has been able to explain why it was unfair but why the system it replaced (and which replaced it) is deemed acceptable. But I think I may be able to help:
"Most people I know all ended up paying several hundred pounds more than the old system."
Certainly some people ended up paying more. They were probably among those I mentioned who lived in multi-occupancy households where it was determined that it would be fairer to levy the charge on a per capita basis. But I'm yet to receive an explanation why charging each adult in a household a community charge is unfair but charging the household as a whole - regardless of the number of occupants - is somehow so much fairer.
"I had to pay her tax and my own tax on one slender wage."
And what was unfair about that? We're talking about fairness. You also had to pay for her food, for her share of the gas and leccy. Would it have been "fair" for you to have paid only the costs for one person for those things because she did not work? Of course not. Whether the court cared or not was not the issue.
And what was unfair about that? We're talking about fairness. You also had to pay for her food, for her share of the gas and leccy. Would it have been "fair" for you to have paid only the costs for one person for those things because she did not work? Of course not. Whether the court cared or not was not the issue.
Indeed they were. Mrs NJ and I certainly paid less under the Community Charge than we had previously paid in rates.
My view is that the furore was fertilised by people who had, for one reason or another, previously paid no rates at all. They suddenly found themselves having to shell out and they did not like it up 'em. Of course it was unfair for those living in such a parallel universe but for those living in the real world there was nothing at all wrong wit it.
My view is that the furore was fertilised by people who had, for one reason or another, previously paid no rates at all. They suddenly found themselves having to shell out and they did not like it up 'em. Of course it was unfair for those living in such a parallel universe but for those living in the real world there was nothing at all wrong wit it.
//It is so patently obvious that the Community Charge was the fairer system that I genuinely struggle to understand why people lost their minds over it.//
Community Charge was much the fairer system of course, but it should be easy to understand that people who lost their minds preferred the unfair system.
Community Charge was much the fairer system of course, but it should be easy to understand that people who lost their minds preferred the unfair system.
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