Tag Archives: New Labour
Council Tax Cover-Up!
A surge in council tax appeals in Bolton reveals systematic over-charging by Government Gordon Brown and his Ministers are deliberately covering up serious problems over the banding of homes for council tax
New figures have revealed that Whitehall’s council tax snoopers have been forced to redo the council tax bands of thousands of homes after appeals by householders across Bolton and the country.
Official papers from Gordon Brown’s council tax inspectors, the Valuation Office Agency, have admitted that many homes are in the wrong band for council tax and families have been paying over the odds for years. Accidentally leaked minutes have confessed that if the tax errors became known, the Government would lose money and would have to pay tax refunds. This was also ruled out since it would generate “adverse press coverage… in the current climate”.
The combination of a campaign by ‘Money Saving Expert’ Martin Lewis, the publication of these leaked minutes and an ITV Tonight documentary, has produced a surge in council tax appeals. Now Parliamentary Questions have forced the Government to publish detailed figures on the changes to council tax bands.
In the last three years, 190,000 existing homes have had their council tax band changed: 133,985 homes have moved down a band. In Bolton 548 homes have moved down a council tax band as a result of appeals. This proves there are serious and systematic errors in the banding of homes, which Ministers have been covering up to save money. The Labour Government has been caught red-handed fiddling council tax to make families in Bolton and across the country pay more. Whitehall bureaucrats know that many homes across the country are wrongly banded, but have refused to correct the tax inspectors’ errors to save the Government money and save face.
The whole basis of our tax system is undermined if the state conspires to over-charge the public. Labour Ministers only want to reform the council tax system if it rakes in extra cash for Gordon Brown’s coffers.
A Sad Day For Politics
Last night I stayed up rather too late waiting for the North West results. Waiting and hoping that the BNP wouldn’t take a seat in the European Parliament. I’d already seen them take one in Yorkshire, and this was disturbing enough!
I feel it’s a sad day today as we all must take in the prospect of what two seats in the European Parliament gives this racist outfit who call themselves a legitimate political party. Not only does it give them a platform from which to legitimately campaign from, it gives them the financial recourses to do so.
There are a lot of things I find unforgivable about this Labour Government, and this is one of them. We can’t blame everything on MPs expenses, although I’m sure it has to take some of the blame. This problems that the BNP are focusing on have been unaddressed for years. Lack of border controls, uncontrolled immigration, over stretched public services, access to our services and benefit system to all and sundry, all unaddressed after years of a Labour Government. Michael Howard to his credit had the audacity to bring this up in the 2005 General Election campaign, I remember only too well as one of his candidates, and he was labelled a racist.
Labour have a created a ridiculous politically correct environment, and I have thought for a long time we were heading for an unhealthy right wing back lash, and here it comes! Last nights results should also give an insight to what proportional representation would mean for our system – a disaster!
As a Conservative I couldn’t be happier, we increased our share of the vote after a difficult period for all the main parties in the back drop of the MPs expenses scandal. I hope now that we can move on and clean up the system and get on with the real job of bringing our wonderful country back into some sort of shape. The Conservatives won in Bolton last night and I’m determined that we will win in Bolton at the General Election – whenever Mr Brown has the decency to allow the British public the choice they deserve.
Give us a Referendum
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Is this the final nail in the coffin for pensions?
It’s been an eventful week to say the least with a budget like we’ve never seen before. There’s no doubt that Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling are trying to appease the left of the party with tax hikes for what they call “the rich” but as usual their plans are naive and ill thought out. They are in fact doing untold damage by targeting the people who can get us out of this recession. Entrepreneurs are a vital part of our economy and the negative impact of this budget has not yet emerged.
What the Government has done, will in my view raise less revenue than expected, and is just a gesture to punish those earning at the top end – it’s a political move by a Chancellor and a Prime Minister who are putting the interests of Government ahead of the public.
The fact they have have gone for pensions – again, is unforgivable. In the small print, and initially unnoticed are plans to tax anyone earning more than £150,000 on payments their employers make into their company pension schemes. This sets a precedent in the taxation of pension schemes and we should all be very worried regardless of what we earn.
It’s very easy to say well they can afford it if they are earning 150k – this is not the point. This government have already raided our pension schemes, and this further raid is simply a d isgrace, who knows where it will stop. With the state of public finances and the total absence of any plan to control public spending and restructure the state, we are simply on a crash course.
Would you buy anything from Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling? Well who’s going to buy the £220 billion of bonds they need to sell in order to even begin paying back this gargantuan debt they have saddled every one of us with?
