PeteBrant

So, Government plans for the next 12 months will be outlined today. What can we expect?

-Plenty more draconian security laws? Check
-Ill thought out money grabbing "climate change laws?" - Check
-More on the spot opportunites for Police to act as judge jury and executioner? - Check.

And you're kidding yourself if you think the Tories will be any different.

Here's my favourite.

"Police will also be given the power to throw home-owners out of their properties within 48 hours for committing anti-social behaviour. "

Hopefully the Lords will stop this one in its tracks. I am fairly certain the Government has a group of poorly trained chimps thinking up knee-jerk, reactionary legislation.

Leslie

Is that really correct, or are you having us on?

Les

PeteBrant

BBC NEWS | Politics | Blair plans final security blitz

Trout

iTrader: (1)

And people think this is a free for all liberal PC do gooding Government.

My ****

(See I can debate with the best of you - bring it on )

PeteBrant

proceed with the development of ID cards.

No great surprise here. The Government seems determined to press ahead with the white elephant of ID cards. No one has managed to satisfactorily explain to me exactly how these pieces of card are supposed to enhance my safety - Any more than Passports/birth certs/driving licenses already do. And they definitely haven't convinced me it's worth spending £5 billion on. Oh, and of course I will have to pay £40 odd for the priveledge of having one forced on me.


Extend road pricing schemes

No shock here either. Lots more money to be made from the motorist, after all, it's a captive market. Lots of people don't have a choice but to use a car, given the joke that is public transport in rural areas. But hey, the Government have got to pay for ID card schemes and useless NHS computer systems somehow

Give new powers to London's mayor

God help Londoners. Probably best you vote Ken out next year. You only have yourselves to blame if you don't. I'm glad I left the big smoke 6 years ago - I will never go back.

Tighten regulation of estate agents

Actually just remove that particular parasitic bunch of tossers completely.

Plans to abolish jury trials in complex fraud cases.

This is actually quite sensible - Your average Joe does not have the financial experitse to cope with deciding whether someone fraudulenty embezzled millions from a company using a complex system of financial loopholes.


And, as mentioned previously

Police will also be given the power to throw home-owners out of their properties within 48 hours for committing anti-social behaviour.

Won't be long before we can do away with all this innocent until proven guilty nonsense once and for all and just incarcerate anyone we don't really like the look of, right kids?

GrahamG

Wonder if this will ever come into play.

Will really **** me off if it does. I think we pay enough as it is. if they are charger per mile that will be a joke. just say 50p per mile.... that will cost me £25 a day round trip to work!!

lozgti

I was hoping when Prince Charles became king he would do the following.

Use what the government had given him to read out as loo paper.Re establish the monarchy as a force.Put his continual questioning of the way the whole country is run in to force (thought he was always annoying the politicians and questioning our PC mad country.

Sadly after his mental 'I will be defender of all faiths speech' all my hopes have been dashed.

Wish the Queen had ***** and would stop rubber stamping mad legislation put before her

PeteBrant

Well, realistically it is going to be city centres that are affected first.

The problem with "Green taxes" are that whilst on the face of it, they promote a cleaner and more environmentally way of life, hiding behind it is a way for the Government of the day to cover all sorts of expenditure, and current revenue shortfalls.

It has become politically unfashionable to not be green, and as a result, the three main parties are determined to "out-eco" each other, ready to denounce each other as climate-destroying monsters if they are seen to be weak on the environment.

However, just how much of the revenue raised by these taxes will actually be pumped back into the transport system? The answer is not very much. The government, whilst putting on a green front, has to fund ever increasing security activities and crime prevention, an ailing NHS and several levels of bureaucracy. Without putting up income tax, it can't afford it. It has already put up NI, and removed the upper limit (whilst claiming it has not reneged on its "We will not raise income tax" promise, because, NI, is not, apparantly, the same as income tax - despite it being a tax based on our income), so that option is out. It has abolished the married couples allowance, so that avenue is out too, in fact, given the tax burden is now at around 38%,(and projected to raise to 42% by 2012) there isn't much left it could have done.

Then along comes the saviour of the enviroment. All of the sudden the government can justify all sorts of new taxes based on saving the planet. Local councils can get in on the act too, which the government absolutely loves, because it means they don't have to give the local council as much money collected from all your other taxes, oh no, the local government can tax you on all sorts of new enviromental reasons to cover the shortfall.

Now I am all for the common good. Taxes are a good thing, they mean we have all sorts of benefits that would not be there otherwise. They mean if we, gofd forbid, fall on hard times, there is a safety net. If we need a heart transplant, we can get one without having to sell out homes. However, there is only so much you can give - Actually I'll rephrase that, there is only so much you can give without seeing any noticeable improvments in public services . And you have to beleive what you are being taxed on is fair and just.

But, being British, we will just sit back and take whatever the government of the day throws at us, we wont do anything constructive to change things. We will just sit in pubs and on forums and moan about it, and then vote the same lot back in come election day because the alternative is.. well, the alternative is a party with exactly the same policies.

When you next come across a tax you don't agree with, see what level of support you have in opposing it and act on it if ther eis enough. Remember, you have the biggest single weapon against the system in mass civil disobedience. Did you vote for a tax on non recyclable rubbish? No? Then refuse to pay the tax, and, if enough of you stay the course, the tax will be abolished - there doesn't have to be riots, or violence - Just refuse to pay it.


Blimey, where did all that come from?

OllyK

PC is the biggest tree hugging, quack medicine following nut ball out there.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

So is that what they mean about being PC they mean being like Prince Charles.

I get it now - no one else has answered my question

GC8

People are like sheep.

GrahamG

dunno, but interesting read!

I know who i won't be voting for in 2 years time!!

Leslie

The danger is that evicting families could be extended by a bad goverment to fitting up someone who was getting in its way.

Don't like the sound of the abandonment of juries for certain trials either. Our genuinely deserved liberties and protections are being sliced away.

Les

PeteBrant

To be fair, were I on trial for a complex fraud case, I would want the verdict given by a group of experts who understood the subtleties of the trial, and not a Morrisons shelf filler.

SJ_Skyline

*cough* 90 days *cough*

PeteBrant

Hopefully it will get defeated again - I can't see anyone that didn't vote for it last time going for it this time