I think that the proposed cut in the VAT rate from 17.5% to 15% is a pointless exercise. Its not been clearly thought out and won't really help those at the lower end of the income scale anyway.
Will the high street really pass the VAT cut on????
Most high street retailers pick price points i.e. they pick prices that appeal to the public, at a price they think the public will be ready to pay i.e £9.99, £10, £15 etc etc - they don't think..... I'll sell this for £x plus VAT!
Do you really think that most retailers will sell a £9.99 product for £9.77 or a £25 product for £24.47 after the rate has been cut?
The answer is NO - most will stick to the price points that have already been identified as attractive to consumers.
If a retailer has identified that it can sell its product for £10 then they will keep the price at £10 and pocket the difference (23p). That might not seem like a lot for the average perosn - but actually it amounts to billions in the pockets of the businesses.
Retailers are more than capable of changing the total cost (inc VAT) as necessary i.e £5 off in order to have attractive price points.
Before you say that I'm being cynical - I thik that retailers have already shown that they are ready to exploit loopholes to keep as much money in their pockets as possible
http://images.vnunet.com/v6_static/oracle/pdf/fd/nov_vat_fdbrief.pdf
No I think the savvy retailer will simply pocket the difference in order to bump up its own profits!
The only way to truly test this is for someone to keep a track of all prices pre and post the cut - but no one is really goingto do this now are they!
Will it make a difference??????
The actuall impact in the retail price of a product will be just over 2%. When a retailer has a sale they would normally slash a minimum of 10%-25% of goods to get people through the doors. Just imagine how busy the January sales would be if the offer was 2% off everything???? Not very I would guess!
In these depressing times are you going to celebrate being to save 20p off a box of chocolates or £10 of a £500 plasma tv!!!
Why
Ultimately, I think it a sound bite - "look what we've done to help the public".
I guess you're going to ask what would I do - to be honest I don't know - but this is too little, poorly targeted and pointless!
What makes it worse to my mind is that none of the mainstream media (tv, newspapers) seemed to have picked up on this pointkess exercise!
Showing posts with label Political. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Political. Show all posts
Monday, November 24, 2008
Thursday, April 28, 2005
The General Election
The thoughts that have been going across my mind for the last few days is should I vote and who should I vote for?
Conservatives
To be honest I don't like the manifesto and policies of the current Conservative party as they appear to reactionary... they don't appear to come out with anything new or innovative... they merely seem to react to any current crisis and rush out policies to deal with those issues. This has led to them raising quite contentious issues such as race and immigration to fever pitch level.
While I do agree that these issues haven't been handled as well as they could by Labour and there are serious problems to be overcome, the way the Tories deals with them (to my mind) looks like an attempt to scaremonger the public into voting for them. The effect of this is that groups such as the BNP (by association to these issues) gain credibility in their campaigns and the general public feel that the country is at breaking point when to me it doesn't appear to be the case (after all ethnic minorites make up less than 8% of the population... even if they tried how much damage can they do?).
The arguments surrounding the benefits that the immigrant population bring to the UK are completely ignored. These issues include:
Conservatives
To be honest I don't like the manifesto and policies of the current Conservative party as they appear to reactionary... they don't appear to come out with anything new or innovative... they merely seem to react to any current crisis and rush out policies to deal with those issues. This has led to them raising quite contentious issues such as race and immigration to fever pitch level.
While I do agree that these issues haven't been handled as well as they could by Labour and there are serious problems to be overcome, the way the Tories deals with them (to my mind) looks like an attempt to scaremonger the public into voting for them. The effect of this is that groups such as the BNP (by association to these issues) gain credibility in their campaigns and the general public feel that the country is at breaking point when to me it doesn't appear to be the case (after all ethnic minorites make up less than 8% of the population... even if they tried how much damage can they do?).
The arguments surrounding the benefits that the immigrant population bring to the UK are completely ignored. These issues include:
- Keeping the NHS alive!
- Providing a skilled resource which is not available in the UK
- Combatting the decline in population
There are many moer issues but these are ignored!
As the Labour party has taken up the same political groud that the Tories occupied, the Tories do not appear to offer a distinct alternative anyway (except in certain extreme issues where they appear to be as extreme as the BNP).
Labour
Well to my mind they haven't done much over the last few years except break promises. They managed poorly the Iraq War (which I and many people I know disagree with) and in many areas they are the Tory party in all but name. Many systems under them are in disarray (the NHS/police force/immigration etc). And to be blunt I have no faith or trust in Tony Blair.
The poor handling of the immigration situation by the goverment has led to high profile controversies which has led to the mainly well behaved ethnic minorities being labelled and targeted.
The Labour party, who were once the champions of the poor, don't appear to haven done much during their tenure in office to create "real" jobs and employment and safegurad British Industry.
At times they appear to operate a "Laissez Faire" policy until things hit crisis point (look at the Rover issue/the cricket tour of Zimbabwae). They are the government its theie duty to lead!
Again I can't see much difference from the old Conservatives, but because of the disenfranchisement with the Tories I can't see anything other then a Labour win!
Liberals
Some of their policies I agree with and some I don't (such as legalising Canabis) but to my mind they appear to be the most honest of the three main parties. They also appear to offer real alternatives to the main parties. Regardless of this i don't see them winning much of the vote.
Others
Votnig for any other party... well seeing as the smaller parties in the best cases will be unable to form any significant voting blocks within Parliment a vote for these while displaying people's anger at the other parties will do little to influence the political machine of policy and law. So all in all a wasted vote!
Summary
The Labour party haven't done anything to earn my vote, while the Tories campaigning has been reactionary at best at extremist at worst. They don't appear to offer any alternative and regradless of who is in power between these two, I don't see much change in internal or external policy. The Liberals won't really get into power and a vote for the rest is really wasted.
Conclusion
After carefully considering all of the above I think I'll exercise my democratic right to stay in bed on the 5th od May. To all of you think carefully, look below the headlines and use your vote wisely.
Friday, April 01, 2005
Eastenders and benefit rip-offs
I was watching Eastenders last week and I was quite annoyed at one of the storylines...
Stacey Slater reported the Miller family for making false benefit claims... the Miller family were shown as ending up in real financial difficulty and the storyline was slanted such that the family was portrayed as being helpless and deserving of sympathy and that they had the sympathy of other residents of the square.
Lets look at this... Keith Miller the father of the family was falsly claiming incapacity benefit, not working and sitting at home idle. When this was stopped the family ended up in financial difficulty. Making a false claim is wrong and shouldn't be tolerated. Its a crime. Its some one not wanting to work but wanting to benefit from others efforts.
The BBC should not portray this family as victims as in real life the real victims would be you and I... honest tax payers who slave away everyday to pay for ourselves, our families, our country and those genuinely in need. While I know that this is a fictional storyline, in reality this goes on too much for my liking.
The character of Stacey Slater while evil and while doing things for the wrong reason actually did the right thing.
I would like to add that I don't think there is anything wrong in claiming benefits, after all they are there for a reason to hekp those in need. There are also a lot of people out there whose claims are genuine. My gripe is with those people who make false claims. As well as "stealing" they give those who are genuinely claiming bad press. I also don't like it when they are portrayed as victims to elicit sympathy.
If I knew of anyone making false claims I would report them and I would hope that you would too.
Stacey Slater reported the Miller family for making false benefit claims... the Miller family were shown as ending up in real financial difficulty and the storyline was slanted such that the family was portrayed as being helpless and deserving of sympathy and that they had the sympathy of other residents of the square.
Lets look at this... Keith Miller the father of the family was falsly claiming incapacity benefit, not working and sitting at home idle. When this was stopped the family ended up in financial difficulty. Making a false claim is wrong and shouldn't be tolerated. Its a crime. Its some one not wanting to work but wanting to benefit from others efforts.
The BBC should not portray this family as victims as in real life the real victims would be you and I... honest tax payers who slave away everyday to pay for ourselves, our families, our country and those genuinely in need. While I know that this is a fictional storyline, in reality this goes on too much for my liking.
The character of Stacey Slater while evil and while doing things for the wrong reason actually did the right thing.
I would like to add that I don't think there is anything wrong in claiming benefits, after all they are there for a reason to hekp those in need. There are also a lot of people out there whose claims are genuine. My gripe is with those people who make false claims. As well as "stealing" they give those who are genuinely claiming bad press. I also don't like it when they are portrayed as victims to elicit sympathy.
If I knew of anyone making false claims I would report them and I would hope that you would too.
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