Cameron 'Steps Up to the Plate' - At Last!

At last, Tory leader David Cameron stood up for Conservative principles and destroyed Darling's Labour budget in 15 minutes of well directed salvos.

Lady Thatcher must have laughed when Cameron, who has done so much to distance himself from her policies, explained to the Labour MPs that expenditure should not be in excess of income. The fact that government borrowing is nearing £200 billion should ram this home to every sane minded person. Of course, this approach, espoused by Senator McCain, was ridiculed by many Republicans. He, of course, was right; as was lady Thatcher in the 70s and 80s, and as was Senator McCain.

Secretary of State for Children, Ed Balls, thinks of himself as a bit of an economist and a key Gordon Brown advisor. He shouted out in the middle of Cameron's response to the Budget that who cares if Britain is in debt and increasingly so. With an approach to economics like this, it demonstrates that Labour policy has not directed the UK economy, but has only spent the profits and the overdraft over the last 10+ years.

So, as the world economy hits bumpy seas, the US is able to reduce interest rates and levels of taxation, European and Oceanic countries are able to invest previous FY surpluses, etc. we have nothing in reserve. The cupboard is well and truly bare!

So, as I think of a glass of wine to soothe the bad mood, I realise that Labour have put an extra 14p of duty on a bottle of wine. Okay, a glass of whisky might be appealing. Then I think of the 55p of additional duty. Oh well, a litre bottle of cider, the favourite tipple of binge drinkers, under-age drinkers and alcoholics is only going up by 1p. Anybody for a glass of scrumpy?

The Peasants are Revolting!!!

AD1381, and the peasants of England were getting a bit upset with their rulers. In the Essex village of Fobbing, they were so upset that they forcibly evicted the visiting tax collector. So started the Peasants Revolt.

Fast forward to today. An on-line petition, on the government's own web site, had over 1.6 million signatories rejecting the notion of even greater 'stealth taxes' intended for the motorist. Notably, that of charging the driver to use public roads. The Prime Minister has already made it clear that he will ignore the call from a sizeable proportion of the country, for no such tax, and that he will enforce any damn tax he choses to foist upon us.

Back to 1381 again. The taxes that had caused so much contention, went to the funding of the continuing war against the French. This might have gained some sympathy then, and probably would now, but the problem was that this particular tax was regressive in nature. The authorities had deemed it fair that the highest in the land should pay the same as the lowest. One shilling!

Any road charging, that this government intends to introduce, will mean that the richest can continue to travel with little meaningful inconvenience, whilst us mere peasants will have our travels restricted by the grasping minions of New Labour. We will all pay the same, despite income or need.

Once again, as I have written before, this government fails to learn the lessons of history. Those revolting peasants murdered the three establishment figures considered most culpable; Simon Sudbury, the Archbishop of Canterbury and Robert Hales (the King's Treasurer).

Now, I'm not advocating that we all descend on London and 'top' the Prime Minister and Chancellor in a fit of pique. But what is clear, from the ICM poll today, is that Gordon Brown's reign will be a short one indeed! No doubt, both Blair and Brown will be calling us, the plaebian electorate, revolting.

King Weiwang and the Implementation of Tax

Yesterday, I mentioned King Weiwang and his relationship with one of my favourite philosophers; Zhuang Zi. I thought I might mention King Weiwang again, whilst the subject was still fresh in my mind, and because he is of interest to me for several reasons.

King Weiwang was part of the Zhou dynasty, and reputedly ruled from 378-343 B.C in what is now Shandong Province. He is of interest to me because of his part in the Warring States Period, whereby the Warring States supposedly saw innovations in the fields of commerce, agriculture, and iron-working. It is interesting to see how often developments are achieved in time of war, despite the disruption that societies are forced to deal with.

King Weiwang’s particular contribution to the aforementioned developments was the overseeing of complimentary reforms in the tax system and the military. This, of course, is not without parallel in the western world. William Pitt ‘The Younger’ introduced fundamental tax reform by levying Income Tax to fund the war against France and her allies. Abraham Lincoln did likewise to help fund the United States in their struggles against the Confederacy. King Weiwang just happened to do it some 2,150 years earlier!