[SMHarman]

Originally Posted by dellwear

Careful, your bordering on the patronizing there SMHarman, I'm 21, I'm in full time education at Uni and I support New Labour, and happy to stand up and be counted.

Just because someone is younger or paying less tax than you doesn't mean their views are less considered than yours.

Thank you. I'm happy you said bordering on. I re-read this carefully before I posted it because of that. For the same reason I wrapped up the post with the positive comment about opting into the political decision making process. It wasnot meant to patronise, but merely as a frustration from someone who feels battered from both sides by this government. Pay more tax to support better services, but as you are a middle class, middle income earner don't expect any support from us as a government.

In many respects I am happy to be paying the level of tax I am. It means I earn a good salary for a start. The problem I have with our current tax system is its lack of transparancy and the fact that instead of breaking a stupid election pledge not to raise direct taxation we are creating a mountain of indirect taxations and a further mountain of staff to monitor, collect and process them. Would I prefer 1% on income tax or NI. No real difference in my pocket, but a helluva processing difference for those who had to rewrite their payroll apps to cope with the new NI bands.

I've studied accountancy, i've studied tax and when I can't understand my self-assesment tax return who can? And thats the stuff you declare on a tax return, then there is VAT, Road Tax (Vehicle Excise Duty for the pedantic), Road Fuel Tax, Gas and Electricity VAT, VAT on compulsory insurance premiums (4% of your car insurance premium goes to the govt.). Council Tax, Stamp Duty, Tax on Savings (which I paid tax on before I put them in the bank), Inheretance Tax (hang on didn't these assets get Income Tax and VAT and Stamp Duty on them when they were bought?). I could go on. As a sole earner in my house, the fact that Mrs H's personal allowances cannot be shared with me - If they are personal why can she not give them away? means that our take home pay would be significantly more if there were two earners on half the pay.

My concern is where this tax take goes. Genuine asylum seekers should be supported. We don't have a good infrastructure for this, so fortunes go to slum hostel landlords for putting them up in poor conditions at £100+ a night. Westminster and Wandsworth Council (amongst many others) spend £ÃÆ ’‚£Ãà¢Ã¢â€šÂ¬Ã…¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚£Ãƒââ‚ ¬Å¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚£ a night in this manner. As a council tax payer it is frustrating to think that your annual bill of say £1400 will be in the hands of a private landlord within a fortnight because of the capacity crunch and their ability to charge such rates.

Healthcare. The system is good in parts, but not enough for me to trust it fully, like I would the French or German systems, so I buy (through a company group policy) BUPA cover, an expense that could be considered a tax in many respects. As a private home owner there is no safety net from the govt if I lose my job (unlike a renter has) so again another policy as the state does not cover me.

The government takes nearly 40% of the nations wealth. Up from 37% when they came into power. The government now has 8% more money than when it came to power where is that going. I wish I had an 8% payrise over the last few years.

Originally Posted by dellwear

In regard to poaching staff from abroad, are you as moral when it come to purchasing items that were made in the middle/far east? Where workers are aid a pittance by the multi nationals?

Is this possible in todays global economy? The skill base has moved and we no longer produce many goods to enable you to buy british. I hope the manufacturers I buy from use good supply chain management, but in the same way we are now exporting call centre jobs we exported these roles for a lower cost base many years ago. If we are paying a fair market rate to the country then the whole transaction should be fair. A lot of this production has been exported to China which has now become one of the powerhouse economies of the world. Surely this is a benefit in both directions.

Originally Posted by dellwear

But as you so rightly said, there a far too many people that complain about the systems and policies in place but don't bother going and putting that little x in the box.

Maybe people will this time, after all the media are gunning for the labour government at the moment, but I'm sure a short stint in "Howards 50's" will remind people why Labour were voted in last time

Perhaps - I'm one of those who have lost trust in this government economically. That is more a finger pointed at Brown, not Blair. Be transparent. Admit that to put 30 years of underspending right will hurt, but dont try to pretend we can have jam today and tomorrow.

Oh and I so nearly had the next green pip (he says preparing for the neg rep).