Subsidy for the rich

 This is a stupid tax. Those who chose live in rural areas face higher bills. The poor have fled the countryside and moved to towns. Their jobs have disappeared and rural council houses have been sold off.  There is rush to the countryside by urban rich settlers using the appreciation  they have gained on their inner city homes. 

All services to scattered rural communities are expensive. Delivering a letter to a farm can use a half a litre of diesel per farm. Delivering to a house in a terraced street costs next to nothing. But the price of a stamp is the same. Rural dwellers are subsidised by the urban poor.

Now all urban families and pensioners will pay an additional £6-a-year broadband tax. The Government's minister in charge of the plans has said he is aiming to bring in the new charge in a forthcoming finance bill. A tax of 50p a month on all land lines to fund 'superfast broadband' could now be made law by the end of the year. 

For almost all other situations market forces apply. If services are expensive in rural areas, rural people should pay the cost. Rural areas are richer than urban areas. Why subsidise the rich?

All taxpayer families are now forced to pay an average  farm tax of subsidies, support and free insurance of £700 annually.  

This is no longer justified as farm single payments are hand-outs for owning land rather than for producing food.  British meat production ceased for six months during the foot and mouth outbreak. But it created no shortages of meat or increases in supermarket prices because alternatives are available. 

Taxpayers' money was used as state charity and income support for millionaires including, between 2002 and 2004, sums of £2.2 million to Sir Richard Sutton, £1.5 million to the Vestey family, £2.5 million to Alan Turner, £900,000 each to the Duke of Radnor, the Earl of Plymouth and the Duke of Richmond, £799,000 to the Duke of Westminster and £300,000 to the Duchy of Cornwall. It almost certainly higher than that now.

The rich aristocrats must be pleased to hear that their broadband will be subsidised. Thank you, urban suckers.

 

 

Wounded

The BBC's 'Wounded' programme tonight was hard viewing.

The wounds suffered by our soldiers were dreadful. The hospital treatment was miraculous, but little could be done to help the inevitable suffering of those who had  lost limbs and eyes. The  spirit of the wounded soldiers was extraordinary.

One without legs said he wanted to return to the front line. They all wanted to talk to their old comrades in arms. There were no signs of bitterness about their shattered lives. The military camaraderie was still strong and no one questioned the mission.

Those who took the decisions to inflame the Taliban in Helmand could not have watched these tragedies with a clear conscience. I am glad I am not in their shoes.

 

Tomorrow night

Thursday at 7.30

Newport Civic Centre

Discussion on Afghanistan -the future

All welcome

Comments

[Adam]

I watched 'Wounded' Paul, and like you I found it hard to watch as well as being inspirited by the determination and camraderie of those severely injured men. Who knows how many have lost limbs or have been otherwise disabled?

Its a shame that their sacrifice is in vain for a misguided cause. The NI lad was only about 12 when this war started. It sickens me that this continues without cause. That programme really brought home the consequences of this war.

[HuwOS]

Surely Paul, one of our problems is ever increasing urbanisation and one of the reasons for that is the lack of services and opportunities outside of urban areas.
One service that could make being anywhere as good as being in any particular spot is broadband availability.
That the tax is on, as the tory chap put it "old technology" is perhaps valid. I would propose an alternative micro tax on every text msg sent, this way todays youth primarily, would be funding the infrastructure they will be relying on in the future.
Fair and equitable neh?

[HuwOS]

Surely Paul, one of our problems is ever increasing urbanisation and one of the reasons for that is the lack of services and opportunities outside of urban areas.
One service that could make being anywhere as good as being in any particular spot is broadband availability.
That the tax is on, as the tory chap put it "old technology" is perhaps valid. I would propose an alternative micro tax on every text msg sent, this way todays youth primarily, would be funding the infrastructure they will be relying on in the future.
Fair and equitable neh?

[Kay Tie]

I take it you'd be happy for the universal service obligation for telephone and postal services to be lifted then?

[Richard T]

The obvious point is that all the country dwellers are not millionaire plutocrats, let alone gentleman farmers. Poverty and deprivation in rural areas are as bad as in the cities; if anything they're aggravated by the lack of facilities like transport, medical care, shops which people in towns can access easily. The principle of a universal service paid for by the same means has been at the root of social policy for a while. Are you saying scrap it? if so, it's a very slippery slope.

[Paul Flynn]

It is simply not true that poverty is 'as bad in rural areas" Richard T. You have been subjected to propaganda from the rural lobby. Even news is 'rural-proofed', nothing is 'urban proofed.' By all standards of wealth, jobs, assets, crime, education, life expectancy rural areas are far more prosperous and better off than urban areas.

So successful has the propaganda
been that poor pensioners who will never have broadband are being told they must pay an extra rural tax to pay for broadband for the rural rich.

[Kay Tie]

"Poverty and deprivation in rural areas are as bad as in the cities; if anything they're aggravated by the lack of facilities like transport, medical care, shops which people in towns can access easily."

But Richard, you're not going to win Paul over with facts. Above all his loyalty is to the tribe, and the tribe regards all rural residents as toffs riding on horses. Or their lackeys.

He also ignores the fact that poor urban pensioners are subsidising rural postal deliveries and the laying of telephone wires to rich fox-hunting toffs. His crocodile tears for urban pensions dry up when it comes to making them pay for the grocery bills of MPs (which probably explains why Paul throws away a third of his food, apparently).

[Aidan]

I support universal services, but then I support nationalised utilities.

You're right about the countryside though - it's becoming a theme park for the rich and a green factory for subsidies.

My parents live in the countryside and work in the city. As they commute in each day, there's another flow of commuters out: the farm workers (usually contractors now) who can't afford to live in the country. They have council houses, while all the 'Cottages' built for their antecedents are now bijou pads for city-working professionals. Appalling.

[Kay Tie]

"Appalling."

Why? What about the people who used to live in Islington who can't afford to live there now?

What would you rather happen? Britain becomes an unchanging theme park, with jolly Welsh miners singing while maids milk and ruddy-faced farmers toss hay?

Or would you rather that some Government Inspector decides who can buy a house where? That would mean that rural people become trapped in their jolly cottages: they could only sell them to other smock-wearing yeomen.

[Paul Flynn]

It needs an effort to take your latest contributions seriously KayTie. There is a great deal of resentment in rural areas to outsiders moving in to rural areas and helping to boost the already inflated house prices. Their first move is usually to complain about the rural smells.

There are endless agencies that exist to promote rural initiatives and to pump up a stream of rural special pleading. The myth builds up to the situation where my local pensioner constituent who does not have or want broadband asks me why he should pay an extra £6 a year for those who live in rural areas. What is the answer?

In the Post Office saga, a small fortune was spent keeping rural post offices open (some with fewer than 16 customers a week) and closing down urban ones.

[Kay Tie]

Interfering in the prices of rural homes would cause as much harm as it tried to fix. Ask anyone in a property with a restrictive covenant for farming use - they can't find buyers. But arrogance is a characteristic of MPs and you think you can plan this all, despite the manifest failure to run simple public services.

I will give you an example from today: my NHS dentist says I need a filling, and has given me an appointment in SIX MONTHS' TIME. My tooth is likely to rot by then so they will do an extraction under emergency treatment. This is all following NHS procedure. I am going to go private and get proper treatment, even though it will cost £300. What will a poor person do in my place. Yes, lose two teeth. So much for your lot caring for the disadvantaged: your tinkering has made things immeasurably worse.

Why not learn from the utter incompetence of your current lot and from the Russians who, even with gulags and the NKVD, couldn't make things work. Learn some humility and understand the limits of power. Oh, and give me back the money I paid in tax for dentistry: you've cheated me.

[Kay Tie]

"my local pensioner constituent who does not have or want broadband asks me why he should pay an extra £6 a year for those who live in rural areas. What is the answer?"

Why should he pay for a TV licence when he doesn't watch the BBC? Why should he pay for your groceries when you throw away a third if your food? Why should he pay road tax when he only drives a few miles? Why should he pay 39p for a stamp to post a letter that's only going down the road?

What's the answer? Why, to vote for whoever will defeat the Labour candidate at the next election.

[patrick]

Kay - Tie
I'll be more than delighted to remove your tooth for you...free!

[Kay Tie]

"I'll be more than delighted to remove your tooth for you...free!"

I'd rather not lose the teeth at all. Alas it seems knock-your-teeth-out is not just Labour's approach to state-run dentistry but also its debating style.

[Paul Flynn]

Once a prejudice is lodged in the public's brain, KayTie, it's there for ever. All MPs will be judged to be spending money on cleaning our moats, repairing our swimming pools or looking after our forests. The examples of the worst become a universal accusation. It's futile to disagree because that the belief. Anyone brought up in the wartime rationing and poverty is angered by waste of any food. It's a gut feeling.

[Paul Flynn]

What a parliament it's likely to be if the country follow KayTie's example.. The Tories have the most loathsome bunch of new candidates ever. They are nearly all former lobbyists or have spent their entire working lives in politics.

You can surely do better than that KayTie.

[Kay Tie]

"You can surely do better than that KayTie."

Eh? Since when am I part of the Tory Party? I have no liking for my loathsome local Tory, nor do I relish the idea of the Tories coming to power - just glance at the odious Simon Heffer's writings to see what horrible elements there are. But I shall with a peg on my nose vote for them: if we don't punish Labour for their mendacity, their immoral behaviour, their hypocrisy, then what message does that send the political class?

[Paul Flynn]

All those adjectives KayTie were used accurately against the Tory Government of John Major. Frying pans and fires?

[Kay Tie]

Yes, and they were all true then. And I voted Labour in 1997, as did many who wanted the Tories out. I fully expect that by 2015 the same adjectives will apply to the Tories once more.

Our politics has become like mobile phone companies: they are all awful, but if you don't move to a new one then how else can you make them improve?

[DG]

I can top your filling story Kay Tie. I need a wisdom tooth extracted, it's cracked from being impacted and therefore gets infected roughly every 6 weeks no matter how careful I am to brush my teeth. I've been waiting since May to be put on the waiting list. My file is sat on a consultant's desk. Which consultant, I ask? Sorry, can't tell you. Can you get him/her to call me? No. Can you tell me anything at all? No, you just have to wait. I can't afford to go private.

NHS doesn't seem to treat people like they're human, you're just a piece of meat in a processing plant. If this is efficiency, you can bally well keep it.

[Kay Tie]

I'm sorry to hear that, DG. NHS dentistry is a disgrace. It's doubly a disgrace to hear the professional screeching classes lay in to Daniel Hannan over his comments on the NHS when they are presiding over a system that has, in effect, been privatised. Funny how the "NHS is free" vital principle goes out the window if the infection is in your mouth rather than another part of the body.

[HuwOS]

"Our politics has become like mobile phone companies: they are all awful, but if you don't move to a new one then how else can you make them improve?"

Especially if you keep choosing between the two remarkably similar offerings.
Anyone who wants real change, might understandably have voted Labour in 97, not having gotten it, its less understandable why they re-elected them in 2001 and beyond belief that they did it again in 2005.

Anyone voting either Labour or Tory in the one next year is voting clearly and unequivocally for more of the same.
People who do not cast a vote or who spoil their ballot are indicating clearly that they don't care what happens and I am willing to bet that those groups, Labour/Tory voters and non voters will make up the vast majority of people.

One wouldn't mind so much, except then we will have another 5 years of the same vast majority of people complaining about the government and how all politicians and political parties are corrupt and don't listen to the will of the people.

[Kay Tie]

You're right Huw. It's one reason why I think there's a non-trivial risk of civil war in one form or another: Our weak democracy is no safety valve for the pressures building up.

[Paul Flynn]

A whole series of celebrations will take place in Newport in the next few weeks. As a contribution I have revived my six points for a new Charter. I published first about five years ago. If they had been adopted the quality of our democracy would have been improved:-

We need a new Charter for the 21st century. Here are six candidate points. Make all votes of equal value. Extend to all media the broadcasters statutory duty of balance. Make power the exclusive gift of the electorate never to be or inherited or bought. Liberate political parties from dependence on outside interests through national funding. Give franchise to 16 year olds. Broaden all political horizons to encompass one humanity, one environment, and one world.

[Kay Tie]

Now it seems half the population has given up on the NHS and gone private:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/6232341/NHS-dental-crisis-Can-the-rot-be-stopped.html

If this is Labour investment then give me Tory cuts.