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Wednesday, April 22, 2009

boris

it must be great being boris johnson. there you are in a position of power and responsibility and you can make bold statements that you don’t have to make good on because they are outside your purview. (a little like being the leader of the liberal party).

in talking about the various bail-out schemes and fiscal stimulus that the government have initiated in order to get the economy though the current financial crisis boris points out that the debt that has been built up will be paid for by all of us. boris says, "everybody, i am afraid, is going to have to pay that off in much higher taxes all round."
in a sense it is fair that it is that way. after all it is a national situation (well more an international problem) and propping up the banks was necessary so that we can all get on with our lives. the government has intervened to try to protect the market. we all benefit from that; we all suffer if it fails. so we all bear the brunt of it.

except boris doesn’t mean everyone.
indeed some people shouldn’t pay higher taxes.
for boris the new 50% tax for those earning over £150,000 (phew members of parliament are safe then, as long as we don't count their expenses) are a return to the “soak the rich” approach of the 1970s and would harm london. for boris “london is the motor of the uk economically. we need to send out a very positive signal about the enterprise culture we have in london."
in other words the rich shouldn’t be taxed because they might leave and we need them to stay here because they are the ones that power the economy and we all benefit from them. which sort of ignores the fact that these masters of the universe got us into this mess, and that much of the debt we have is due to the government bailing them out.
that doesn’t matter. you have to look after the rich, after all the rest of us benefit from the crumbs that fall from their table, we should be thankful (doff cap).
as the song says:
it's the same the whole world over, 

it's the poor what gets the blame, 

it's the rich what gets the pleasure, 

isn't it a blooming shame?


in sounding his call to the conservative party not to implement the tax rise, but at the same time saying that we will all have to pay, boris johnson is showing us that really the conservatives haven’t really changed and that they are just interested in making sure that their pals in business are looked after. they know that if they don’t they won’t have a directorship to go into when they leave politics.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

break

had a bit of a break from here. it has turned out to be much longer than i thought it would be.
one of the problems of the post employment state is the complete loss of any timeframe.
would like to say my batteries are recharged and i am flowing with creative juice (just bubbling with coffee i am afriad) but i am back to wow and thrill, to entertain and educate, to tell tales of wonder and spin stories of flatulence (which is next to flaunt in my dictionary which proves it is fine to let one go in public. really. honest).
in short it is business as usual.