With the UK Budget just around the corner, it’s good to remind ourselves of the kind logic that is used in preparing the nations finances by New Labour.
In his pre-budget statement at the end of last year, Gordon Brown, UK Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced his plan to double the duty on flights from 1st February 2007– even if you bought your ticket months before.
Aware no doubt of the dubious legality of such a move, one that is being challenged in the courts, the government tried to dampen any opposition by describing the duty as a tax on airlines, not passengers.
Right, I get it. Tax the Airlines and the passengers don’t suffer. So, where does the money come from to pay for the taxation? The profits from the airlines. Where do the airline profits come from? Er, passenger revenues.
It is good to know that we have a man in charge of the UK’s finances, the man who wants to be prime minister, who is so in tune with the realties of the real world.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Staying nuclear with Trident
The votes are cast in the lobbies at the Palace of Westminster. New Labour, the party once implacably opposed to anything nuclear, has had its way with the people of the United Kingdom. Not so much led them astray. More take them behind the bike shed, done its worst with the people and told them that they should enjoy it 'cause it’s good for them.
So much for Blair going out as a world statesman. More like a discredited wolf in sheep’s clothing. The rhetoric, the charm, the vacuous words. And no more so that on nuclear weapons. From a point of principle when a member of CND, to a point of acquiescence to USA policy when in government. So against them when we faced the very real and present threat and might of the former Soviet Union: so in favour of them when we face the might of, er, North Korea.
When you think about it, the last days of Bush and Blair could have been a triumph for world peace. They have enough conventional weapons to blow up the planet between them. So why not quietly say to every other country that has nuclear weapons or aspiration to have them, “we are getting rid of our weapons of indiscriminate mass destruction and you have till the end of my presidency to get rid of yours or we will bomb your weapons and associated sites to bits with our conventional weaponry.” Nobel peace prize for ridding the world of nuclear weapons a cert! What a legacy that would be to cherish. Think the Bush Blair Axis will do it?
So much for Blair going out as a world statesman. More like a discredited wolf in sheep’s clothing. The rhetoric, the charm, the vacuous words. And no more so that on nuclear weapons. From a point of principle when a member of CND, to a point of acquiescence to USA policy when in government. So against them when we faced the very real and present threat and might of the former Soviet Union: so in favour of them when we face the might of, er, North Korea.
When you think about it, the last days of Bush and Blair could have been a triumph for world peace. They have enough conventional weapons to blow up the planet between them. So why not quietly say to every other country that has nuclear weapons or aspiration to have them, “we are getting rid of our weapons of indiscriminate mass destruction and you have till the end of my presidency to get rid of yours or we will bomb your weapons and associated sites to bits with our conventional weaponry.” Nobel peace prize for ridding the world of nuclear weapons a cert! What a legacy that would be to cherish. Think the Bush Blair Axis will do it?
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