Speaking as one of some 38,000 ordinary working people (trademark) who used to have their tax covered by one individuaI, I wish to put it on record that I object violently to the fact that just one person leaving the UK has dumped his tax burden on me.
I object violently to more tax being paid for anything, but here we have an absolute pointer to how incredibly ideologically driven our government is. They have collected an EXTRA £240 billion in tax since assuming power yet have managed to BORROW an additional £260 billion as well. You would actually think that was impossible to do but they have manged it without even a blink of an eye or a look to what it means in the future. And there will be higher taxes come October (and more borrowing too). And can you see where it has been spent? As a certain gentleman once said “They spaffed it against the wall”. I certainly haven‘t noticed swathes of things being better, apart from the NHS which adopted Palentir’s systems (hint:a private solution) (spit spit spit) and which actually started to make a difference. The same could have been done for the Met Police. Except one S.Khan decided he would rather have more violence, drug taking, rapes etc etc than pay a pretty good value £50m to a private solution (aka Palentir). Who the left hates a) because they do things better than layabout non-workers but b) more importantly because they have a connection to a tech company in Israel with an investment of a few million. Not tens or hundreds. Single digit. Personally I think it’s disgusting that such a thought should enter anyone’s head.
The real problem is that the universal truths of Keynesianism have broken down. The financial landscape has been so distorted that the way that Keynes envisaged an economy working has – as I said – broken down. It is very much the Laffer curve coming back to bite everyone on the bum. As I’ve said before, we have reached the point of no return. Every tax hike from here on in will produce less and less income necessitating more and more borrowing at higher and higher interest rates.
Our Chancellor, John Healey, produced a speech the other day that could only be described as both of no consequence and utter drivel. And guess what? It’s not just me saying that, the bond markets are as well as they exact higher interest rates to lend to our profligate nation. This year, if we are lucky (ha!), we will spend around £135billion on debt interest. Three years ago, it was not much over £100 billion. This year’s figure represents around 10% of all UK Government receipts (and growing). So 10% of what comes in goes out to nothing productive at all – and don’t give me the baloney about “investment”. It’s just spending. Unsurprisingly some £600 million has been pulled from investments in the UK in the last quarter.
Not least is our continuing insanity about Net Zero. If we reduce our carbon emissions to zero, that will make a difference of 1% to world carbon emissions. That will mean absolutely nothing in the grander scheme of things, and you can bet your bottom dollar other countries will be taking advantage of our position. They already are in terms of fossil fuels – I just read that America has already pencilled in higher oil production this year than last, and I have no doubt they will be doing the same with gas. What are we doing? Well, we’ve stopped all exploration for a start and in terms of gas production there is an oven-ready field ready to start production pretty much today that has been put off YET AGAIN to appease their left wingers. Did I hear a warning that we are already short gas for this winter? Yes I did. Would the new field sort that? Pretty much. But our lords and masters care less for us than their own position. Don’t forget, too, that it is NOT computers and AI that is cutting jobs in hospitality for example. Some 90,000 have gone this year, entirely driven by the necessity of paying the extra employment taxes. So the next time you have to wait an extra few minutes for that first pint, don’t blame AI. Blame the government.
But why am I going on about 38,000 ordinary working people (trademark)? Our insane anti-high net worth individuals policies are slowly but surely driving these very people away, and at an ever-increasing rate. A certain gentleman who PAID some £330 million in UK TAX per annum has decided enough is enough – especially if there is more coming down the track. That gentleman is Chris Rokos who has (quite sensibly) decided to remove himself to Greece. Of course, we cannot know what, if any, specific things he has put in place in Greece but they have a 15 year program requiring investment and various other things and paying just £100,000 pa. This – as the Americans say – is a complete no-brainer. Never mind he also gave £190m to Cambridge, employed lots of people who paid even more tax and generally made life better and more productive, as well as adding to GDP and all sorts. The interesting thing is (quite apart from the richest 1% paying about 30% of ALL income tax, and the top 10% some 60odd%) countries where billionaires are a larger proportion of the population do relatively better overall. That’s a fact. Why? Because they spend a lot of money, create businesses, employ lots of people and innovate and pay a huge proportion of the total tax take. Our present government couldn’t have made it plainer. We don’t want you here. I’m willing to bet that Rokos’ advisers may have had meetings with HMRC to try to mitigate the situation but HMRC obviously decided getting nothing was better than getting something.
So farewell Chris. Many thanks for supporting we 38,000 over the last years. I for one will definitely miss you.
