OWN GOAL

A Commons Committee of MPs grilled Lin Homer, chief executive of HM Revenue and Customs, to determine why multi-national companies were able to have large sales in the UK and yet pay little or no Corporation Tax.  Homer was subjected to aggressive questioning and had a fairly uncomfortable time. The reason why these companies are able to organise their tax in this way is that this tax avoidance is allowed by our laws.  Who makes the laws, the MPs.   Physicians heal thyselves!

THE CHANGE WILL DO ME GOOD!

David Gauke, a Treasury Minister, has criticized the practice of householders paying tradesmen in cash, saying it “is morally wrong”.  It appears that the recipients don’t pay VAT or income tax on their takings and this costs the Treasury about £2bn each year.  You really haven’t thought this through Mr Gauke!  When MPs are bribed, what on Earth do you think the brown envelopes are stuffed with!

THAT'S NOT FUNNY!

So, Jimmy Carr, using  very elaborate but legal tax arrangements, pays a mere 1% income tax and has been lambasted by the Prime Minister as being “morally wrong”.  Isn’t one percent  the same level of tax paid by the blue chip giant, darling of the Tories, Vodaphone, through a so called “sweetheart deal”?  One man’s lack of morality is another man’s financial alacrity.  

DON'T PANIC!!!

I thought that a copy of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which has Don't Panic in large friendly letters on the front of it, would be useful for the Government. While Cameron desperately tries to remember where and when he last ate a pasty and whether it was hot or ambient, while Francis Maude searches through Wikipedia for the definition of jerrycan*, while the petrol queues grow and the backlash over tax relief for the rich and the "granny tax" continues, the government tells us not to panic.  Its not us that are panicking, it's you!  Thank God Miliband E. will be standing by, ready to take over the reins, boosted by his Bradford by-election victory. What could possibly go wrong there.

 *( a 20L steel can of German invention, hence jerrycan, the Wehrmachtskanister is used by the military to store petrol etc, and is too large to be stored legally domestically.)