JohnBM:Liberal

Something happens

The tabloids cry: “Something must be done!”

The Ministers shout: “We must do something!”

A Special Advisor holds aloft a piece of paper: “This is something!”

The Prime Minister sighs: “We have done something!”

This month the something has been MP’s expenses.

Started by a plethora of ministers claiming second home expenses for sleeping at their mum’s house or for the house where their whole family live, rising to a crescendo of pay-per-view porn on expenses. Everybody shouting: “Something must be done!”.

Gordon Brown announces today that he wants a vote in Parliament next week replacing second homes allowance with a “turning up to work bonus” – little discussion, three line whip, something done.

Gordon needs to learn not to equate “doing something” with “doing the right thing”.

According to The New York Times the planner of the September 11th attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was waterboarded 183 times in a month.

Although it is likely that he did plan the September 11th attacks, after just one waterboarding I would confess to:

• the Gun Powder Plot (Apologies to Guido Fawkes);
• the murder of the princes in the tower;
• the ripper murders;
• sending the Archduke Franz Ferdinand the wrong way down a one-way street;
• hiding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; and
• forgetting our wedding anniversary.

A complicated tax system only really helps one thing -

The Government – By creating a complicated and opaque tax system the government is able to perpetuate a system of doublethink. By complicating tax beyond recognition with incentives and loopholes and credits and rebates, government is able to hide behind an impenetrable wall of words and numbers. A wall which will benefit it and those who can afford very expensive accountants.

Come Wednesday when the budget is announced (if there is anything left to announce by then), Captain Darling will without a doubt release a raft of new measures purporting to “lift the UK out of recession,” “help hard working families,” “relieve the burden on business,” etc. etc.

Herein lies the problem: how does anyone know what he is actually proposing?

The only way the vast majority of people are going to be able to understand what the budget means to them personally is: through media based punditry attempting to distill a few salient points from the dearth of information; or wait until their next pay cheque.

That is why I applaud the tax plans of Mssrs Clegg and Cable; whose tax plans are this:

1. Raise the bar at which we all begin to pay tax;
2. Close loopholes that help the richest avoid tax; and
3. That’s it.

These are tax proposals which everybody can understand.

Tax simplification is transparent taxation.

This is the democratisation of tax.

• Happy Easter #
• Sickened that any party is prepared to smear the mental health of the wife of a politician. Would they smear a cancer sufferer? #
• Unable to get out of the house due to my son’s midmorning chocolate overdose wearing off. #
• To bed I must go – a long overdue haircut awaits tomorrow #
• Finished a survey for on and offline consumption – ready for printers. hurrah!!! #
• Time to get invoicing #
• Leaflet delivery and Civic Dinner tomorrow yay!!! #