HMRC tax dodge hypocrisy
Posted: February 23, 2012 Filed under: Business, Law | Tags: business, Goldman Sachs, government, HMRC, law, tax avoidance, UK Uncut, Vodaphone Leave a comment »
£50 million? Is that all? Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customers announced today that it aims to recover that amount in unpaid tax by employing a campaign it describes as a “crack down” on dodgers – all whilst players closer to home owe much more.
HMRC will launch thirty new taskforces in 2012/13 in order to ”target specific business sectors in specific locations where there is evidence of tax evasion”. The rag trade, motor trades and market stallholders are cited as being the most likely targets.
Er, what about the estimated £8 billion tax bill that HMRC let Vodaphone dodge?
Er, what about the rest of the £25.5 billion unpaid taxes – including £20 million from Goldman Sachs alone – HMRC let slip through its fingers?
The Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, David Gauke, said, “The Government is committed to tackling tax evasion and avoidance. HMRC’s taskforces are cracking down on people who choose to break the rules and creating a level playing field for the majority who play by them.
“It is completely unacceptable, at a time when we are trying to bring down the deficit that, while most hard-working people pay the right tax, there are others who try to get out of contributing their fair share. HMRC has received lots of useful information on its evasion hotlines, which shows that the honest majority are quite rightly fed up with the dishonest minority.”
Very true Mr Gauke. Very true. But in this time of imposing severe austerity cuts across the UK, why not maximise efficiency by setting your new teams to the task of chasing “the dishonest minority” who owe by far the most in unpaid taxes? Or is there a clearly understandable reason why government is chasing the little man whilst letting off national and global corporations?
EU readies to turn nasty on member states
Posted: February 23, 2012 Filed under: Currency, International | Tags: Council of the European Union, EU, Euro, Fascism, government, monetary union 1 Comment »The struggling EU’s imperialistic determination to influence and control otherwise (ostensibly) sovereign economies came further into plain view earlier this week.
The threat
On Tuesday, Herman Van Rumpoy’s Council of the European Union agreed “draft regulations on economic governance” as part of the superstate’s strategy of manoeuvring towards further punitive control of its nation member states’ fiscal and monetary policies. Below is a small extract from a news release issued by the CEU. (Emphasis in bold added.)
ITEMS DEBATED
ECONOMIC GOVERNANCE – SECOND PACKAGE
The Council agreed a general approach on two draft regulations on economic governance, namely: • a regulation for enhanced monitoring and assessment of draft budgetary plans of euro area member states, especially those subject to an excessive deficit procedure (6565/12); • a regulation on enhanced surveillance of euro area member states that are experiencing severe financial disturbance or request financial assistance (6566/12).
This will enable the presidency, on behalf of the Council, to start negotiations with the European Parliament, with a view to reaching agreement at first reading before the end of the Danish presidency.
The two regulations would introduce provisions for enhanced monitoring of euro area countries’ budgetary policies. Member states would be required to submit annually to the Council and the Commission their draft budgetary plans for the next year by 15 October. Closer monitoring would apply to member states in excessive deficit procedure in order to enable the Commission to better assess whether a risk of non-compliance with the deadline to correct the excessive deficit exists. Member states experiencing severe difficulties with regard to their financial stability or receiving financial assistance on a precautionary basis would be subject to even tighter monitoring than member states in excessive deficit procedure.
[The full press release contains further such horrors and can be found at http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_data/docs/pressdata/en/ecofin/128102.pdf]
The penalties applied
The price of non-compliance with such centralised EU diktats was highlighted (also earlier this week) when Hungary received a “sanctions” warning for “failing to correct its excessive deficit”. Euractive.com reported the fuller story thus:
Hungary is set to become the first country hit by the EU’s new economic sanctions as the European Commission prepares to announce proposals to suspend part of the country’s regional funding for failing to correct its excessive deficit.
The Commission will propose on Wednesday (22 February) to suspend a share of Hungary’s Cohesion Funds over its failure to take “effective action” to curb its excessive deficit.
[Article continues at http://www.euractiv.com/euro-finance/eu-readies-economic-sanctions-hungary-news-510987]
Our underlying decision
In the opinion of Economic Survivor, the regulations and related sanctions seem reasonable prices to pay for membership of the EU club.
But the real question is: Do we really want to continue giving up our sovereign rights by buying into this increasingly fascistic superstate which has already suspended democratically elected governments in Greece and Italy by installing bankster “technocrats” as its dreams of collective monetary union teeter?
How we are paying for NHS cuts
Posted: February 21, 2012 Filed under: Health | Tags: ambulance services, cutbacks, health, NHS, recession economy, Sheffield, wages for housework Leave a comment »People staffing ambulance services in Sheffield are great – caring folk working hard to put their passengers at ease on what can sometimes be worrying trips to and from hospital. But cutbacks have meant a loss of wages for many of them, and a poorer deal for many vulnerable patients.
In the past couple of years, well before Prime Minister Cameron’s current attempts to privatise the health service and rationalise it, a lot of ambulance drivers have been downgraded. The result is not only reduced wages for them, but also a subsidising of the NHS by outpatients and their relatives.
How so? Well, take this example:
Today I went to my aging father’s nursing care home at noon so that I could accompany him (a requirement) on an outpatient trip to hospital for an x-ray. He has developed a problem with his back and investigation is required as he is currently only comfortable when lying down. This meant that the ambulance staff had to be qualified to transport him using a stretcher.
To save money, the NHS in Sheffield demoted drivers so that most are now not on a sufficient pay grade to take responsibility for stretcher cases. There is now only one stretcher – a trolley in reality – in the entirety of England’s fourth biggest city today – when in the past there was always at least three available.
So I was advised to turn up at 12:00 hours on the basis that the crew might arrive any time between then and 2pm. Thankfully, they came at 12:30. Once at hospital, my dad was seen to almost immediately (on the basis that he was a stretcher case). Great! But once his appointment was over, we had to wait until 15:40 before the overly-busy stretcher vehicle could come take him home again. Had I not (politely but firmly) made myself vocal, we could have been waiting much longer.
Having to prepare early and potentially get back several hours later – all due to scarcity of qualified staff – meant my dad and I paid for NHS cuts by donating significantly more of our own time and (somewhat stretched) patience than would once have been the case.
Oh, and the emergency admissions ward administering the x-ray is to be closed down soon. Why? Because resources are being deployed to a ward at another hospital on the basis that there might one day be a swine-flu epidemic.
Great, eh?
Stem cell meat – How offal is that?
Posted: February 19, 2012 Filed under: Health, Talking Points | Tags: climate change, food, health, Science, stem cells 1 Comment »
BBC News reports tonight that Dutch scientists are creating artificial meat in laboratories using stem cell technology.
The justification cited is the falsehood that an exploding world population will require meat “produced more efficiently” and with a “smaller carbon footprint”: Science gone mad, using the hooky science of climate change to make us accept such a dystopian horror.
Given reluctance by governments worldwide to label even GMO frankenstein foods, what are the chances of us knowing if we are eating this crap once it is on supermarket shelves?
- The BBC article is at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16972761
- Overpopulation – the Making of a Myth - http://economicsurvivor.net/2011/10/31/overpopulation-the-making-of-a-myth/
#justsaying
Be a Snitch!
Posted: February 17, 2012 Filed under: Law, International | Tags: humour, media, government, surveillance, war on terror, Alex Jones, infowars, Alternative News Leave a comment »Something for the weekend from Infowars.com …
Gizza Job
Posted: February 16, 2012 Filed under: Work | Tags: economy, recession, UK, unemployment, work 1 Comment »The Office for National Statistics released data today showing that one in every three UK jobseekers has been looking for work for over a year.
Here are the top 10 employment blackspots in January 2012:
| Local authority | Region | Claimants | Vacancies | Ratio |
| Clackmannanshire | Scotland | 1,893 | 27 | 70.1 |
| East Dunbartonshire | Scotland | 1,903 | 68 | 28.0 |
| Lewisham | London | 10,791 | 393 | 27.5 |
| West Dunbartonshire | Scotland | 3,969 | 148 | 26.8 |
| Eilean Siar | Scotland | 554 | 21 | 26.4 |
| Hackney | London | 11,019 | 455 | 24.2 |
| Isle of Wight | South East | 3,964 | 171 | 23.2 |
| East Ayrshire | Scotland | 4,872 | 212 | 23.0 |
| East Renfrewshire | Scotland | 1,423 | 62 | 23.0 |
| North Lanarkshire | Scotland | 12,517 | 571 | 21.9 |
Source: nomisweb
YOUR COMMENTS