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Stench of the seventies
The Sun (U.K.) ^ | 06/24/03 | Richard Littlejohn

Posted on 06/23/2003 7:13:53 PM PDT by Pokey78

SO were the last 20 years a figment of our imagination?

Was the idea that we kept most of what we earned and took responsibility for ourselves and our families a dream?

We thought we’d left behind the era of crippling taxation and union militancy, where everything costs the earth and nothing works properly.

We were led to believe Labour had changed. Enterprise was in, envy was out. We obviously thought wrong.

In the past few days, there have been calls for much higher income taxes from senior Labour politicians.

One of Tony Blair’s favourite think tanks has come up with a plan to make us pay huge taxes when we sell our homes.

All this on top of the 60 tax hikes under Labour, the biggest increases in taxation in peacetime, equivalent to an extra £44 a week being taken from every man, woman and child in Britain since Blair came to power.

Employees and employers alike have been hammered by the rises in National Insurance, an income tax in all but name. We’re taxed on everything from our homes to our holidays.

Our pension funds have been pilfered to the tune of £100billion and rising, meaning we’ll have to work till we drop because we can’t count on a comfortable retirement.

Yet Labour thinkers want to confiscate a large chunk of any profit we make when we sell our houses, which is about the only way most people these days can build up a little equity, a cushion for their old age.

More than a million extra people have been dragged into paying the highest rate of income tax.

And with what’s left of our wages, we have to pay 17.5 per cent VAT on practically everything we buy.

We’ve got the dearest petrol in the world because the Chancellor takes 80 per cent of the price of every gallon.

If you can afford to run a car, you still face swingeing fines for driving a couple of miles per hour over the limit and extortionate parking charges, which all find their way into Government coffers to be squandered on still more bureaucrats and enforcers.

We are working longer than ever each year before we get to keep some of what we earn. And still most people in the Labour Party think we aren’t paying enough.

We must be clobbered again and again to pay for “investment” in our public services.

But Labour has pumped in billions and we’ve got nothing to show for it, except legions of outreachers, co-ordinators, facilitators, managers and advisers bossing us around.

Ask yourself this, as you swelter in a traffic jam or stand like sardines on a stationary train, waiting for your hip operation, which you might get in a year from now once they’ve treated all the illegal immigrants.

Are you getting value for your money?

Is your railway service any better than in the bad old days of British Rail?

Have the billions wasted on permanent roadworks on just about every route you use done anything to make your journey easier?

Are your children getting any better education than you did when class sizes were twice as big and headmasters didn’t have to go cap in hand to parents to hire teachers?

Are the streets any cleaner? Do you feel safer since the police abandoned crime fighting to concentrate on gender equality schemes and paperwork?

And do you think that if you paid even more tax it would make the slightest bit of difference?

Under Labour, taxation has become a device for taking money from Sun readers and giving it to Guardian readers, to squander on empire building, interference and grandiose, utterly useless projects.

Now the unions, freshly emboldened by Left-wing leaders who hark back to the good old days of Arthur Scargill, are girding their loins for a wave of strikes to screw higher wages out of public sector employers, paid for by us.

And Labour has the audacity to describe higher taxes and big government as “modernisation”.

It’s nothing of the sort. It’s about as modern as loon pants, Space Hoppers and Watney’s Red.

There is a stench of the Seventies about “New” Labour, like the rotting rubbish and unburied bodies in the Winter Of Discontent.

This isn’t progress, it’s back to the future.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Government; News/Current Events; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: 1970s; england; progress; progressives; taxes; that70sfeeling; uk
Under Labour, taxation has become a device for taking money from Sun readers and giving it to Guardian readers, to squander on empire building, interference and grandiose, utterly useless projects.

Bingo! That's a keeper!

1 posted on 06/23/2003 7:13:53 PM PDT by Pokey78
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To: Pokey78
Back in the day in old England they had a fellow who, with the help of his merry men, would take money from one man to give to another. Although it seemed a noble gesture, it was still considered stealing!

Today in America, we have the same thing, but we call it Congress.
2 posted on 06/23/2003 7:17:33 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (French: old Europe word meaning surrender)
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To: Pokey78
Speaking of England, what has happened to Ivan?
3 posted on 06/23/2003 7:26:17 PM PDT by x1stcav ( HOOAHH!)
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To: Mad Dawgg
In defense of Mr. Hood - may I remind you that he took the taxes from the government and returned them to their rightful owners. It's an idea worth investigating.
4 posted on 06/23/2003 7:29:19 PM PDT by AD from SpringBay
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To: AD from SpringBay
"In defense of Mr. Hood - may I remind you that he took the taxes from the government and returned them to their rightful owners. It's an idea worth investigating."

My point exactly! If Mr. Hood's antics were stealing then what the hell is our respective governments doing to us?

5 posted on 06/23/2003 7:31:47 PM PDT by Mad Dawgg (French: old Europe word meaning surrender)
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To: Pokey78
obviously they need maggie back.

http://www.newsmax.com/images/side_ads/thoseshirts2.gif
6 posted on 06/23/2003 7:38:59 PM PDT by liberalnot (what democrats fear the most is real democracy. /s)
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To: liberalnot

7 posted on 06/23/2003 8:26:00 PM PDT by perfect stranger (I leave this area blank)
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To: x1stcav
he got a new job from what i heard....i miss his posts!!!!!
8 posted on 06/23/2003 8:31:18 PM PDT by chasio649
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To: Pokey78; MadIvan
bump
9 posted on 06/23/2003 9:14:47 PM PDT by lowbridge (Rob: "I see a five letter word. F-R-E-E-P. Freep." Jerry: "Freep? What's that?" - Dick Van Dyke Show)
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To: x1stcav
Your right, I haven't seen him in a while. Hope all is well.
10 posted on 06/24/2003 4:26:15 AM PDT by DB (©)
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