TAX RELIEF AND MORALITY

TAX RELIEF - IT MAY BE LAWFUL BUT IS IT MORAL?

Jonathan Riley, (Times letters, October 25), makes
the valid point that on matters of taxation, party
leaders have little interest in supporting business.
A case in point is how the Government has
introduced a much tougher regime with regard
to what were legitimate claims for tax relief by
companies, in order to increase Treasury 

revenue. The mantra now is: it may be legal but

is it moral?

The result of the new test has been to confiscate
money that would have been used to expand
small-to-medium-sized companies and create
more jobs in an attempt to address the continuing 

decline in tax revenues.

The line between what has been legal tax
avoidance through legitimate planning and illegal
tax evasion has become ambiguous, decided entirely
by HMRC's interpretation. Its main objective now is to apply
not only a legal test with regard to company tax-

tax-planning schemes, but also one of moral

imperative. This will have serious implications for
SMEs, which will be left in no man's land when it
comes to financial planning. What has given the
the Government cover for this move has been
public outrage at celebrities' use of exotic
schemes, now deemed illegal, to reduce personal
tax liability.

Bleeding companies of vital capital to feed the
insatiable appetite for more public spending
is not the way to address the UK's
unsustainable level of national debt. Higher taxes
result in lower tax revenues. However, as has been
shown, the converse would be true if a flat tax were
introduced, combined with the abolition of a complicated
system of business tax reliefs.

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Sent from my iPad

FEMINISM SKEWS SOCIETY FOR THE BOYS

Feminism has and continues to re-define 

the identities of young, mainly working-

class men. In doing so, middle-class 

followers of the feminist movement 

have successfully skewed society to 

reflect their own, continuing, anti-male 

agenda. Divorce law, including financial

settlements, child custody and one-sided

anonymity in cases of alleged sexual 

impropriety are examples 

Endemic since the 1980s, it is a process

that has been given added impetus by

accelerating economic and social

change. It has happened at a time

when Britain has been transformed

to a mainly service economy.

The result has been the greater 

empowerment of women in the 

workplace over the past fifty years.

They have benefited from improved 

educational opportunities and the

ability to control their fertility. It has 

meant growing financial independence 

from men, not only for those in work, 

but also for young, single mothers who 

have been prioritised for housing and 

receive attractive state benefits.

Along with this has been the changing 

perception of what is meant by a 

nuclear family. It is a complex and 

fluid picture. Marriage continues 

to decline with 42% of marriages 

ending in divorce. 

Serial monogamy and cohabitation 

between single-sex couples are 

common. Gone is much of the 

stability and certainty of family life 

in the 1950s.

In its place are more fragmented 

environments, often devoid of the

influence of paternal role models, 

which are so important in the 

development of the male identity.

Feminist opinion-formers in 

politics, education, the law and 

especially in the media are not 

seeking a comapact between the 

sexes, but female preferment, in 

the form of positive discrimination. 

The impact of the corrosive influence 

that the feminist lobby has had on 

female attitudes to men has been 

profound.

In education, where only 12% of 

primary school teachers are male, 

the predominantly female culture 

cannot, nor in many cases would 

it seek to, encourage the 

development of the male identity 

as such. 

Female characteristics are seen as 

good, male as bad. Many male 

graduates are put off teaching 

by the threat of being falsely 

accused of improper behaviour, 

the consequences of which are 

often devastating. 

Gender bias continues into 

secondary education. Some ten 

years' ago, Jenny Murray, presenter 

of the BBC Woman's Hour, asked 

a guest why boys outperformed girls 

in GCSEs. She was told that boys 

responded better to the pressure of 

an examination, whereas girls 

preferred coursework.

Murray's reply was that if that was 

the system, then change it. It was 

and the result of less rigour has 

undermined the credibility of the

examination system in schools and 

further up the learning process in

higher education. 

This creates the backgound for the

the root causes of many of the 

chronic social problems relating to 

young men. They leave school with 

inferior qualifications, poorer job 

prospects and face unemployment. 

Dismissed as potential husbands, 

fathers and providers by young 

women who are supported by the 

state, they feel unwanted and 

express growing anger. 

Greater tolerance in society for 

generalised 'men are useless' 

statements, jokes, advertisements 

and so on, than would be used to 

refer to any other group, reflects a 

situation for which there is an 

increasing human and economic 

cost. 

Mansion Tax - Miliband shows his Marxist credentials

If introduced, the uniquely pernicious mansion tax would 
mean that a Labour Government would apply an annual
levy on the gross value of the family home, rather than on
its valuation, less the amount of any mortgage.
In other words, tax would be levied on borrowed money.

Moreover, it begs the question of how property values 
would be determined in what would be a falling market.
Also, how soon would the proposed £2m threshold have
to be lowered, in order to generate the quoted tax 
revenue of £1.7bn, which Labour says it would use in
addressing the developing £30bn black-hole in 
financing the NHS.

Another unknown would be the effect on the solvency of
small businesses, where often the family home is used
as collateral for working capital.

DAVID CAMERON'S EU FANTASY


The British genius for putting a positive gloss on abject failure
continues with David Cameron's predicted, humiliating defeat
over Jean-Claude Juncker's appointment. The Prime Minister's
ill-thought-out strategy for securing the early repatriation of
sovereign powers back to Westminster was always doomed.
It could only have worked if Angela Merkel and her colleagues
had believed that there was the real possibility of Britain
withdrawing from the EU and they clearly did not. Mr Cameron
waved the white flag as he was brought to heel by an
unaccountable political elite, whose fine words of
reconciliation about the critical need for reform are
all but worthless.

MILIBAND IN SEARCH OF AN ECONOMIC POLICY

Ed Miliband appears to be searching through Labour's post-war
redistributive election manifestos of economic ideas,
which he hopes will resonate with his core vote and allow him to
scrape into Number 10.

All of his proposals have the hallmark of a command and control
economy, based on more public spending and escalating debt.
With the exception of Germany this would seem to be the case
throughout much of the EU, where the increasing burden of
state spending is destroying enterprise and growth.

Mr Miliband and other leaders of all political persuasions should
reflect on Angela Merkel's oft repeated mantra. "The EU has 7%
of the world's population, 25% of its GDP and 50% of its social
spending." Without the political will significantly to reduce the size
of the state, its appetite to consume an ever growing proportion of
GDP will have predictable consequences.

       TIME TO JUNK JUNCKER

The loss of Angela Merkel's support over the appointment
of the next EU President must not weaken David Cameron's
resolve to make the appointment transparent and democratic.
The Prime Minister insists that for the EU to thrive it should be 
led by those who respect the sovereign state and the need to
streamline the suffocating, unaccountable and federalist
Brussels bureaucracy, objectives ignored by the former
Luxembourg prime minister.

If successful in his candidacy Claude Juncker will surely
ignore these imperatives, as the EU peers into the deflationary
abyss, supporting 50% of global social spending on the strength 
of 1% growth. A tipping point has been reached in the UK's
relationship with the EU and the Prime Minister must do more
than mouth platitudes, promising the impossible of repatriating
legislative powers back to Westminster.

Should this federalist face from the past become president, David
Cameron should act on his threat to bring to bring forward to 2016 the
referendum on UK membership of the EU, which is fast developing all the
characteristics of a full-blown federal state.

UNWELCOME US INFLUENCE

OBARMA MOVES TO INFlUENCE UK EU MEMBERSHIP

AND SCOTTISH REFERENDUM 


Barack Obama's intervention over Britain's future EU membership
and Scottish independence is ill-informed and inappropriate. A free-
enterprise economy functioning in an open, representative democracy
led to the rise of the United States as the pre-eminent global power.
It has underpinned the defence and economies of Western countries
since the Second World War.

These values represent everything that the EU is not. Its Commission,
far from representing the will of the people, represents 
an unelected and unaccountable elite. The introduction of  the deeply

flawed single currency, the monumentally wasteful Common 
Agricultural Policy, largely unaudited capital transfers to the 26
recipient countries funded by Germany and the UK, are manifestly
antithetical to the economic and democratic ideals that the US has 
always stood for.

However, in intruding into the question of Britain's continuing
membership of the EU and the Scottish referendum, 
President Obama reflects a possible drift of the US Government
into the kind of EU mindset that Republicans fear. For economic,
not least ideological, and other reasons, Mr Obama may have 
come into line with the social, political and economic values of
the US's largest trading partner, using its "special relationship"
with the UK as a convenient means to an end.

This is not without its risks. With all Western economies 
experiencing, at best, weak growth and a continuing rise
in welfare spending, how long before the EU begins to
insinuate its social objectives into US policy as a quid pro
quo for trade, with predictable economic and geo-political
consequences?

INFORMED COMMENT

                                         JOHN BARKER MA

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REALPOLITIK AND TOKENISM

President Putin has clearly flouted the

international rule of law by annexing the Ukraine.

He is putting in place a strategy of real politik for

rebuilding Russia's former empire.This could well

be through the evential annexation of the twelve

countries where Russian is the main secondary

language and the insistence that the 'human

rights' of its speakers must be protected. The
similarities with Hitler's policy over sudetenland
in 1936 are stark.
 

The Russian President is assisted in planning his

aggressive domino effect by impotence and

indecision:policy paralysis caused by the

increasing dependency of the EU's major

economies on Russian trade and, of course,its

growing stranglehold on energy supplies.

 

At the same time, the inevitable schism that will

open up between the EU and the US on what to

do about the invasion of a sovereign country plays

into Putin's hands.

 

The Ukraine is the first piece in the jigsaw and the

question is not if, but when, others will follow in

Russian expansion, facilicitated by vacuous talk

and empty threats.

 

WIT OF ONE WHO WOULD BE LEADER

 

The changing name of the former secretary

of state for energy from Anthony Wedgwood

Benn, 2nd Viscount Stansgate to plain Tony

Benn, always raised a few eyebrows. Attempting

to present himself as a working-class warrior

and not a son of privelege could tend to

detract from something that never changed:

his rapier-like wit.

 

He once remarked "Clement Attlee had as

much charisma as a mouse. He was absolutely

mono-syllabic. People say conversation is

supposed to be like a game of tennis, but with

Attlee it was like tossing biscuits to a dog."

It has been said of Tony Benn that he made

enemies and kept enemies. Not so with the

Tory Party. His extreme left-wing views were

a factor in Margaret Thatcher's victory at the

1979 general election and in the eighteen years

of Labour opposition that followed.

 

BBC LICENCE FEE - SPECIAL PLEADING

The BBC's Director-General's article Leave our licence fee

alone (Times, February 24) sounds like special pleading,

not only for the BBC, but also for the entire broadcasting industry,

He suggests that all broadcasters are in danger of being

nationalised, which is clearly preposterous.

Lord Hall's supplication will be viewed with a sense of irony by

the BBC's commercial competitors. The Corporation's existence

relies not on creative output, but on legally-enforced licence-fee

payers' contributions. A significant proportion of the £3.6bn

budget is channeled into the corporation's generous pension

fund. Some 200 people are currently imprisoned for

non-payment of the licence fee.

Lord Hall makes the absurd assertion that top-slicing means

less funding for content we know and love. This does not

reflect the reality of endless old repeats, quiz shows and the

admitted political bias of an institution that has clearly lost its way.

The BBC should return to its core values of its founder, Lord

Reith, as a disinterested, public-service broadcaster,

informing and educating, rather than chasing meaningless

ratings in competing with its commercial rivals.

This calls for a fundamental restructuring of the Corporation,

reducing the global reach of its output, shrinking its

bureaucracy and putting more of its licence fee into

delivering balanced, high-quality news and documentary

programmes.

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LOWER TAXES, HIGHER REVENUES

Commnetators are right to suggest that we may be

approaching a tipping-point, where raising taxes
becomes counter productive.

Evidence suggests that there is an inverse
relationship between the tax rate and the amount
of revenue collected. The higher the tax rate the
lower the Government's revenue In making the
case for lower taxes, we need only look to the
Russian Federation, following the demise of the
Soviet Union in

1991. In order to invigorate a sclerotic economy,
the introduction of a flat tax resulted in a 25% rise
in revenue from personal income tax, followed by
a similar increase in the second year and 15% in
year three.

The Laffer curve predicts such an outcome,
attributing the primary reason for increased
revenues to higher levels of economic growth,
stemming from the introduction of the flat tax. If
the UK Government were to adopt this model it

would also benefit the exchequer by increasing
declared income and reducing bureaucracy by
simplifying the way tax is calculated and collected.

 A flat tax would have a transformative effect on
employers and employees alike. It would
incentivise, generate growth, boost consumer
confidence and raise living standards.

 

TO SMOKE OR NOT TO SMOKE

 

King James 1 observed the perils of smoking over

four hundred years ago: A custom loathsome to
the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain
and dangerous to the lungs, nearest resembling
the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is
bottomless. Nothwithstanding that smokling kills
at least 100,000 a year and harms countless others,
the debate on the freedom to cause premature death
and incapacity will doubtless continue.

 

 

EU - NEED TO EMBRACE ECONOMIC REALITY

Any critical analysis of the

eurozone crisis does not have

an obvious solution beyond that

of greater fiscal and political

integration. While this may indeed

come to pass, it would not address

the disparity in productivity

between the countries of northern

and southern Europe.

In the absence of a cultural change

in the work ethic, which is hard to

imagine, the inevitable consequence

would be Germany keeping the

southern states on extended

financial life-support.

It will continue to fund
accelerating social cost, until such
time as the German economy ran
out of money. The strategy will
merely prolong, perhaps for a
generation, the misery to which
millions will continue to be
subjected.

The only practicable way
forward is for insolvent
eurozone members to rebalance
their economies through the
re-introduction of their former
currencies.

This would, of course, be
extremely painful in the medium
term. However, exhange rates
reflecting competitive performance
rather than a single currency, would
enable tourism and other activities
to flourish and economies to grow.

Such an outcome would not satisfy

the federalist deciples of Ardanauer,

Monet and Schuman, the founding

fathers of the EU. It would, however,

bring hope to those countries that
would prefer economic and political
self-determination with all its initial
pain, to a slow but remorseless
descent into even more dystopian
misery.

David Cameron's speech at Davos
articulated the need for change. The
EU has 7% of the world's population,
generates 25% of global GDP, but
spends 50% of GDP on welfare, which
is unsustainable. The question is does
the EU have the political and economic
will to change, or will reality impose
change upon it?

TWO DIFFERENT DEFICITS - BUDGETARY AND STRUCTURAL

 

The Chancellor is repeatedly asked why, if the economy

is recovering, it is necessary to pursue a programme of

continued austerity? The Coalition says that it has

reduced the deficit by a third, but this is only part of the

picture. It refers to the difference between annual income

and expenditure, which is currently some £90bn.

George Osborne should remind the electorate that the

Budget deficit is the not the same as total national

debt, which at around 80% of GDP is the higest of

any major economy. However, when all liabilities,

including state and public sector pensions are taken

into account the real national debt is closer to

£4.8 trillion, some four times greater than GDP. With

annual debt interest running in excess of £45bn -

equal to the entire Defence budget - the case for

continuing with the Chancellor's tight fiscal policy is

compelling.

 

Clegg's Weak Leadership

All political careers end in failure and this is

a defining moment for Nick Clegg's leadership

of his Party. Winning 57 seats and undue

influence at the General Election hardly called
for political leadership, simply the promise that
the Liberal Democrat tail would wag the Tory
dog.

Now he has failed to address the festering

sore of historical allegations and possible
motives of a number of women activists with
regard to Lord Rennard. Nick Clegg was made
aware of the problem several years ago but
took no action in an environment where gender
equality has beccome a key issue.

Entering Government and becoming Deputy

Prime Minister by a quirk of the electoral
system, Nick Clegg finds himself in a bind.
The outcome would appear to be extended
litigation, possible challenge to his position as
Party Leader, further decline in the opinion
polls and a return to business as usual
at next year's General Election. 

Postscript

Given the influence that the Deputy Prime
Minister's wife appears to be having in the
Rennard affair, one questions the extent to
which the spouse of the leader of a party
with 8.7% of parliamentary seats has in
determining the Government's priorities.