DECISIVE LEADERSHIP IN RUN-UP TO GENERAL ELECTION

In the final period of this coalition government we must
consider the possibility of a major terrorist attack
during an inevitable constitutional interregnum, following
an indecisive outcome of the general election.

The country would be virtually leaderless and national
security seriously compromised, while inter-party 
negotiations were taking place over what could be an 
extended period of drift.

In these circumstances it is not difficult to see how this 
could be exploited by those who would seek to destroy
us and that the price for not voting in a government
with an overall majority and strong, decisive leadership
could be high indeed.

THE MITICHONDRIAL DEBATE - LAWYERS TO BENEFIT

The legal profession must be awaiting with bated breath
the outcome of the for and against mitochondrial debate.
Will it be a new dawn for lawyers' fee-earning potential,
following reforms to legal aid

As one door closes, another opens for the guardians
of our judicial system, as life becomes ever-more
complicated.

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

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.