The world’s taxing debt.
Another boring rant by yours truly. I will use this for other things soon. I don’t know what but something that might interest more people. Broaden my horizons to something more people will take notice of while slipping these ramblings inbetween. Either way, this time I’m going to talk about tax and not just about tax but the excessive amount of tax and current debt owed to us in tax from companies. Did I say tax enough in that sentence? One for luck; tax.
As everyone already knows - or should know - the VAT went up 2.5% again. That means that VAT is now at 20% after being lowered to 15% while Gordon Brown was in charge. We’ve seen it rise 5% in just two years to try and sort out or “crippling debt” so we don’t become the next Ireland or Greece. There are countries in a lot more debt than us. I’m going to explain it using the “Debt-to-GDP Ratio” which is how much debt a country is in and how much products they create and export to pay back those debts. In simple terms; the lower the percentage, the better and more stable the economy is. According to the list in the “CIA’s World Factbook 2010”, Zimbabwe have the worst ratio. It’s at a staggering 282.60%. That’s an insanely high number but they’re a poverty stricken country so that much was obvious. The second in this list is some what a surprise but not at the same time. Japan. Their percentage is 189.30%. That’s almost a 100% less than a poverty ridden country which may seem good but that’s a crippling debt. The UK’s 68.10% is nothing in comparison. Japan are in three times more debt (ratio wise) and still borrowing. For more of these figures, click this.
Currently, Britain owes about £952.80bn in September 2010. Those were the published figures but according to some statistics it’ll rise even further. They’re predicting that by April 2011 it’ll rise to £1043bn and then £1.2trillion the next year. Wow. Maybe it is worse than we thought. Let’s compare us to some other countries. Depending on where you look online, you find different statistics so it’s a bit hard to actually have a definitive answer on who owes what. All I can find is the Debt-to-GDP ratio which is a shame. If the CIA online figures are correct then the USA owe the most with $13,450,000,000,000 being their external debt. Shamefully, the UK is trailing in second with $9,088,000,000,000 but I don’t understand enough to actually guarantee these figures are accurate. They seem to be hiding behind the debt-to-GDP ratio instead of giving a real figure. We all know the government don’t like us knowing everything about their constant short-comings. For more official CIA statistics on all external debt, click here.
Thanks to the ambiguity of the information released by the government, I can’t find any real numbers bar the public sector debt which is £952.80bn but surely has increased since September 2010. For now, I’ll compare ratios. We’re the country with the 22nd highest ratio which is a bad thing. That means there are 21 countries which are worse than us and, yet, we’re the ones taking the most extreme and bizarre methods. For example, the VAT rise. This rise has been judged by economists to “hit the poorest the worst” but that was bound to happen as it was a idea coined by the Tories. Now, what they don’t realise that there’s probably more money to be spent by the working class than the others. It means that if you’re the working class, be prepared to be miserable and never enjoy anything because you now can’t afford comforts. A 2.5% rise seems very minor but considering VAT is on almost everything, it will add up and it will start to show. It’s already shown on stuff like petrol prices (which are at their highest price ever).
Let’s carry on with this VAT rise. Gordon Brown - a heavily criticised prime minister who was condemned for his lack of charisma even though he’s an economic genius - lowered the VAT to 15% during a recession to make sure there’d still be spending and the economy growth didn’t shrivel up and die in a drought filled manner. I must add though that he did raise it back to 17.5%. David Cameron - a ‘charismatic’ liar who screamed ‘new Tory’ and criticised Labour for Tory mistakes that were still being rectified from John Major and Maggie Thatcher - raises the VAT to 20% so that he can watch the poor writhe in pain in an inhumane fashion as they slowly lose possessions and any enjoyment in life. Maybe an exaggeration and a bit excessive but you see what I mean. Cameron has made it more expensive to eat, travel and even clothe yourself. He says we need to pay back our crippling debt quickly or we’ll end up like Ireland or Greece but if he was so concerned on paying debt then why have Vodafone and Topshop gotten away with their ludicrous debt to the government?
This has been a fairly undisclosed and had very little media hype apart from a few journalists who actually care. One of those journalists, Johann Hari, brought this to my attention and I was appalled. Vodafone currently owe about £6bn to the government. Shocking, isn’t it? It gets worse. Not only was this debt not paid, it’s very doubtful it will ever get paid because George Osborne has apparently ‘written it off’. That’s £6bn that could’ve plugged one of the holes in our ever drowning economy. That £6bn (which sounds like an insane amount of money to me) could have helped pay off the interest to our debt at least. That £6bn will never be seen, in my opinion. This is because George Osborne didn’t only ‘write it off’ but he then travelled to India - on government expenses - to help Vodafone promote their service and if that wasn’t enough he hired a worker from Vodafone to be a financial advisor! They hike up the cost for the poor and hit them harder than a giant corporation who could spare that without a sweat? How is that just? According to UKUncut they’ve tired to to dodge another £1.6bn which was owed to India, but unlike Britain, they made sure they got that money.
Now to move on to the tax dodging Topshop. It’s not really Topshop but the owner of Topshop, Philip Green. He is a businessman who makes all the decisions of Topshop and effectively rules the business. Although, it’s not his name as the head of the company. It’s Mrs Philip Green, his wife. His wife also lives in the tax haven, Monaco; how convenient. That means that the £5bn they rake in doesn’t get taxed. If that wasn’t bad enough, according to UKUncut; he built his business, his empire, his mass fortune on the blood, sweat and tears of sweatshop labour in Mauritius where his workers work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for minimal wage. This man - who is famous for giving himself the biggest bonus in UK corporate history, £1.2bn - avoided £285m tax on that £1.2bn because it was done through offshore accounts and his glorious Monaco wife. That’s only the £285m on his bonus as well, not including his other tax dodges.
A massive corporation and greedy tycoon dodging taxes. Shameful. Unfortunately, there’s more to this tax-dodging tale. Our Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, is an infamous tax-dodger himself. The man who rules our economy and has publicly and famously criticised the national debt and said “we simply cannot afford to increase public debt at the rate of £3bn each week” has now shamefully increased our debt with his own corruption. To me, this is sickening and unjust. Why should the poor suffer even more than they already do just because massive businesses want to maximise their investments from stockholders? Why should one man’s greed be allowed considering he makes his money in the UK and even lives here? Why is it that the government hired a tax-dodger to chase up tax-dodgers, control our economy and decide on public spending? Why are people who have not come near a financial struggle in their entire, privileged and sheltered lives, decide on our funding of the public sector?
Quite simply, why is Britain so unjust?
We’re all selfish.
There is no way you can please everyone in the world and this is because of one reason, selfishness. Everyone has a sort of ego or God-complex thing going on and they all truly believe that the world should be catered to suit their needs and their needs only. It’s weird how something so common like this can go unnoticed and no one would have actually realised how selfish the entire world is. But why is this?
Just a note: When I say everybody, I mean the majority of people and I’m leaving out (what I personally believe to be) a pretty small minority since I think a lot of the world is selfish. I’m not saying every single person in the world is, mostly the people in charge really. I realised after posting this that I was saying everybody was the same but I didn’t mean that, I only meant the leaders and the majority of people. This is just my opinion after all.
So where does this selfishness come from? Does it stem from self-importance? Arrogance? The fact that they’re always right? They could run the world better? Probably all of these. The sad truth is, that there are very few genuine nice people out there or people who actually realise that there are bigger problems than themselves. Am I saying I’m one of these fantastic people? Not really, I’m just the same as everyone else. I put my needs in front of others because that’s in our nature. It’s in our nature to provide and care for ourselves, to look out for ourselves and want things our way. We’re just naturally selfish but, we’re also smart enough to stop nature in its tracks since we can adapt our personalities and our thinking.
Let me explain where all this came from. It comes from a few things. The first of these, are the tuition fees, the protests and the latest Welsh Assembly decision. I’m against the increase in tuition fees and the destruction of the EMA system so don’t think I’m being hypocritical about my last post because I’m not agreeing or condoning what the coalition (Tory) government planned. I’m just saying that a lot of students are now taking to the streets even though it doesn’t affect them but I think a lot of them think it does. That’s not selfish, I know. They’re standing up for what they think is right. But is it for the right reasons? Are they actually doing it because they think it’s wrong or because it’s better suited to them? The majority of these are probably only doing this because they’re currently students. A lot of people I know are against the tuition fee increase and now the subsidy that the Welsh Assembly are offering has silenced the Welsh students because now it doesn’t matter to them (us). This is because our work is done, our tuition fees are fine so a lot of people will actually stop fighting for what is right. Or will they? I hope not because that’ll prove me wrong and I don’t want to be right about this, I really don’t so let’s hope the students prove me wrong.
What I’m saying is that a lot of people are complaining about the government because they don’t consider them, when they more than likely do but just ignore it. The thing is, the government don’t even want to cater to the majority really, not this one anyway. This current government is looking out for two things, the rich and the English. If you’re poor then you’re nothing but a poor peasant who doesn’t deserve anything. Their elitist views are what make them selfish and uneducated, which is a surprise since they all went to “top schools” and a “top university.” I think that their privileged education gave them an understanding of how better they are. Most of the people who are in parliament didn’t even pay for university, so they have no idea what it’s like to struggle for money. Now they’re selfishly trying to protect their wealth by not letting it getting eaten up by taxes, even though that’s where their salary comes from.
I know a lot of people say they could be a better Prime Minister. A lot said that about Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. I stand behind Gordon Brown, considering he’s possibly one of the most intelligent men we had in charge of this country and our economy but because his smile eats your soul and he’s uncharismatic…and Scottish (believe it or not, that’s a factor) then he got kicked out. Kicked out, for a man who wears fake tan, proposes change to the UK when he’s nothing but a Tory who lies. He lies and slanders others because he can’t actually fight with his own policies because the majority of the UK would say no to those policies. He has to slander and scrape at any mistake made just because he has no chance.
Sorry, I’m ranting. What I’m trying to say is that a lot of people say they can do better but if they did try, they’d just cater for themselves. They wouldn’t try to actually please the majority. They’d selfishly fend for themselves and they wouldn’t actually care a tiny bit about the majority and that’s where they get led astray. By power. By greed. By the ability to help themselves only. It’s hard to actually find a person who would actually stand up for the majority and what is right in a democratic country, even if it hindered them slightly. I’d like to think I would actually do these things but when I think about the policies I’d introduce or the type of changes I’d like to do I’m not so sure. So how can I hypocritically write about selfishness? I know what I’d do is not punish the rich for being richer, but I wouldn’t punish the poor for that either. It’s a tricky situation to work around.
Now, let me engage you in why I think the EMA scheme shouldn’t be scrapped, just maybe a bit more regulated. My girlfriend actually uses her EMA for education. She uses it to buy supplies for her diploma and it’s a pretty expensive course since she has to fund everything herself, including a camera for photography. She uses it responsibly but she does treat herself so she’s not perfect, but who is? It’s free money. I’m the worst for it, I don’t think I’ve used much money for my education - except for petrol because it’s a necessity to get to school and back since I don’t qualify for the bus any more. That’s it. I suppose my computer could count for educational reasons but I’m not going to lie, I bought a very good computer for gaming mostly. What I’m trying to say is, maybe you should have to claim EMA as a sort of expense. That’s the only way I can see it being regulated properly and going to people who truly use it for that and not an under-age night out in town. Of course, that would cost quite a bit and require a lot of human resources but they’d save a lot of money and on the money they save they could hire or train their current staff to deal with it. The money they’d save from giving it to people who actually don’t use it for education would be huge and there’d be more jobs in the world. Win, win situation? I think so. I just actually said to slash my only income, that’s a bit idiotic of me but I actually can’t find a job but at least I’ve tried. My CVs are probably unread and dusty in these places. Either that or thrown in a bin and possibly recycled at best.
At the end of the day, in a selfish, dog-eat-dog world we all do what is necessary. The famous “survival of the fittest” quote which has been iterated so many times for so many different topics. It’s applicable here and it will be applicable in many other aspects, but it is more relevant here. Survival of the fittest, the key word is survival. We do what we think will best suit ourselves and we do it selfishly, I doubt a lot of people consider anyone else. At best, the other consideration is loved ones and that’s not enough to be considered not selfish. We live in an age where selfishness is at its peak. We need a person in power who isn’t selfish or otherwise motivated, they should make only informed decisions that would suit the majority because that’s the only way of truly being fair.
Weirdly, I’m going to end this with a quote by a fictional character from a TV programme, and he’s the least intelligent of the six. I’m going to quote the famous Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) when he says that “there is no such thing as a selfless good deed.” Can anyone prove him wrong?
Politics and the ConDem(ned) Nation.
The big elephant in my room; politics. More specifically, the Conservatives. Now, the spark that kindled this rampage of thoughts were the riots and protests held today. For those who don’t know, read below and for those who do you can read if you want but there’s no point.
There was a protest about the cap on tuition fees being not only lifted but trebled to around £9000 per annum. That’s a ludicrous amount of money so students, potential students and people who just agreed tore through the streets of London. That I’m not sure about. Either way, they marched through London with banners, chants and so forth. This wasn’t because of the terrible Tory leadership but more the coalition government. It was more about the fact that Nick Clegg signed a pledge to “Fight against an increase in university fees” which we all know, won him quite a majority of votes. This is because of the students thinking “woo free uni” and such. This has turned out not to be the case (surprise!) and instead they’ve increased. They marched wanting Nick Clegg and the Tories out. They wanted them gone. Who can blame them? I’m with them on this. The protest turned violent with a minority who tore through a Conservative building and hijacked the roof with anarchy flags and such.
That protest and subsequent riot has made me angry. I’m not angry at the rioters and DEFINITELY not at the protesters because they have the right to do what they want. I’m annoyed that innocent people got hurt, including police officers who were just doing their jobs. What annoyed me was thinking about how the police officers were still doing their jobs and getting hurt even though there has been a massive spending cut on police, prisons and all things law. They were doing all that to protect a government which is going to cut a few thousands of their jobs and all things related to them. I know they had to but it’s just annoying that the Tories will literally learn nothing from this demonstration. This act of aggression is the first of many and people are preparing for that. The Tories were protected from people who they could make redundant. Ironic.
Before I move onto the budget cuts which will infuriate me I’d like to mention Nick Clegg. The lapdog of David Cameron. The man who literally has a whisper in Cameron’s mansion home while Cameron is having a cocktail party in his garden by the pool. A sign reads “no dogs allowed” so Clegg patiently sits outside with his list of propositions which will be ignored and perhaps even dirtied and soiled. Nick Clegg actually signed a pledge to “fight against an increase in tuition fees” and in his manifesto he claimed he was going to get rid of tuition fees altogether in five years. There’s his key demographic. Late teens and people in their young 20s. They all say “wow he could do something” and vote for him thinking that maybe the whole tuition fees and legalising cannabis thing might actually happen. The students praise and applaud a naïve man who has a glimmer of hope. This, obviously, fell through and then he got a sniff of power and greed took him. Greed is something which a lot of politicians must have as a mandatory and potentially innate trait. Nick Clegg promised he’d stay true to the LibDems words and not let Cameron get away with everything. He said he had a voice. He was wrong and I think he knew it. He’s been a lapdog, nothing more than someone who stands on the sidelines with his tail between his legs and afraid to park in case he gets sent outside for the night. He’s scared to voice his opinions and even now he’s changed his opinions to suit Cameron. Great to see that people sell out so easily and they run our country. The coalition has broken down.
Another problem they don’t see by raising tuition fees is that many people won’t go to university. This means a lot of talent will go to waste, a not of natural cleverness will go to waste in a dead end job because they couldn’t afford higher education. In what world is that fair? This means that the rich will get degrees and they’ll get jobs and get even richer whilst the poor struggle as they won’t even be able to get public sector jobs as they’ll be gone. People with degrees will not be the best any more, they’ll just be the people who could afford it. This means I couldn’t go to uni as I come from a very poor household, there is no way I could afford it. This means I would struggle to find a good job and struggle to get people to realise that I’m a lot more intelligent than my non-existent university degree says.
My mum is a nurse and complains about how understaffed her ward is. Luckily for her, she’s leaving to foster but this is why she’s leaving because otherwise she’d be screwed. She wouldn’t be able to carry on that job until 67 (the now new retirement age) because she lifts and lifts people all the time. The rich think that poor people don’t work hard and that’s why they don’t deserve such help and stuff. My mum has probably worked harder than a very high percentage of those and gets nothing for it but according to them she does nothing. I know someone who suffers from an invisible disease which has flares, just like my nan’s Polymyalgia, so they’re very unreliable which isn’t their fault at all. The doctor and assessors have now said that they could work as they’re not in pain that much. They come over and assess them on ONE day and as it’s something which is inconsistent, how does that make sense? They’ve now ceased their benefits and they can’t receive anything because they’re claimed to be fine. The appeal could take a year. How is that just? How is that fair? It isn’t but it’s the type of thing that the government condone in an effort to slash budgets, to cut bills yet none of them will take a pay decrease? Because it directly affects them and that’s just an outlandish and slanderous idea. We’re supposed to be living an age of fairness and justice yet this is the most unfair and unjust thing I’ve seen. I’d gladly be a testimonial to them as they do struggle and I see no way in them being consistently working even though they WANT to work. That makes sense, condemn someone who can’t work but actually wants to.
A protest song I heard earlier. Students are creative.
Oh Nick Clegg is a Tory! He wears a Tory hat! Oh Nick Clegg is a Tory! And now a massive twat!
Right, now let’s go on to their “budget cuts” which were proposed by the ever fantastic, George Osborne. He’s proposed to cut so much money that it’s pointless to even invest in the first place. As you’ll see below, they are severe. A total saving of £81bn in four years. It seems good that Britain can afford to save that money but the truth is, we can’t. The amount of jobs that will vanish are insane. By doing this they’ll probably attempt a privatisation of the public services to try and revive the jobs but it still won’t be enough. The amount of jobs that will be lost will mean more people who are unemployed and we’re at a peak of unemployment too. This will rip the economy to shreds as there will be no money being pumped into it because people won’t be able to afford anything. How do they expect us to grow if they do that? They’re sending us backwards, in this recession. They’re trying to get us out of debt when Japan are still borrowing and are in FOUR TIMES as much debt as us so why is it so necessary? Do they think Britain will get repossessed? “Oh, Britain…for your crippling debt we’re going to have to auction off Scunthorpe.” No! That’s not how it works! Why not reassemble the economy before making such insane cuts? Yet again, how can I see but they can’t. It baffles me. This could lead to a standstill on inflation and potentially a deflation. The pound will drop which will be good for exports as people will buy more from us as it’s at a cheaper price but it still won’t do enough.
- £81bn cut from public spending over four years
- 19% average departmental cuts - less than the 25% expected
- £7bn extra welfare cuts, including changes to incapacity, housing benefit and tax credits
- £3.5bn increase in public sector pension employee contributions
- Rise in state pension age brought forward
- 7% cut for local councils from April next year
- Permanent bank levy
- Rail fares to rise 3% above inflation from 2012
These cuts will result in a loss of 500,000 jobs in the UK with the worst hit city being Swansea. Fantastic. How do they get into power? Greed. That’s how. The greed of the British public who are rich and want to be unnecessarily richer and then there are the people masquerading as a rich person and trying to fit into the persona. I’m ashamed to say that my dad and his girlfriend are the latter of the descriptions. It is a sad thing that they’re so ignorant. My dad doesn’t know anything about politics but he just listens to his idiotic girlfriend who is as pretentious as they come. She actually believes The Sun is all fact and no lie. Her opinion is blatantly invalid.
This is what the Tories do best. Short term fixes, which barely fix anything but cause even greater long term problems. If an eighteen year old has no trouble in seeing this then how don’t they? Do they not realise how many lives they’re effecting and potentially ruining? That’s the biggest problem with the Tories. They have no real life experience considering they grew up in such favoured surroundings. They were born with a silver spoon in their mouth. They know no one who struggles or who has ever struggled in their life. They would probably cast them aside and brush them away in fear of being sullied by them. They all went to Eton College, they all went to Oxbridge, LSE and other prestigious universities because of connections and money. It’s good to know the education system is also corrupt. They’ve essentially made Britain more of an under-progressed, suppressed cesspool of wasted talent. As long as they persevere though why in the world would they care?
I’ve hit the wall so that’s all I’ll be touching on in this post, I apologise if it’s ended abruptly. Just remember, as long as the coalition or rather the Conservatives are in charge there is on simple word to describe us. Fucked.
Twenty year-old wannabe writer. I love films, music and other random things. Aberystwyth university student. Not enough time to do everything that I want to do. 
