Obfuscation, complexity and confusion – that’s what it feels like.

Especially when you find bits like this (PDF file) tucked away in the Supplementary Notes section. You need to scroll to the end of it for Dawn Primarolo’s statement – it doesn’t get listed in the PDF’s own table of contents. (Shades of “…beware of the leopard”)

On the face of it, it says “We’re going to crack down on City bonuses” (good attention-grabbing headline material bound to play well in the Labour heartland).

Reading between the lines, it actually says is “We are going to introduce retrospective measures to claw back revenue that was missed in previous years because perfectly legal systems were employed to minimise tax liability”.

Tax avoidance is not illegal. It’s the right (and duty) of everyone to minimise their tax liability. Evasion of tax is illegal. This govt wants to blur that distinction, and they’re getting away with it.

The maze of complexity and the uncertainty for small businesses under this govt is enormous, and the future doesn’t look bright, despite Mr Browns blandishments about being ‘enterprise friendly’.

Enterprise-friendly would be to remove the endless variety of Damoclean swords he and his minions have suspended over the heads of one of the key drivers of the UK economy – micro and small business owners.

And in December’s Tax Bulletin guidance notes, teachers are about to get a nasty shock with respect to their tax status. Anyone remember IR35 and how it was a crackdown on those rich IT contractors to ‘ensure they paid the right amount of tax’? Now this “intermediaries legislation” is going to be targeted at supply teachers – there’s even a special revenue unit being set up to do the investigations.

Just what the country needs – a tax regime that actively discourages people to go into teaching.

I think Beware of the Leopard is a very powerful concept eg for unclaimed welfare. My son keeps telling me I’m eligible for a disability allowance for being 6’9″.

What’s odd is I genuinely don’t know whether he’s right or not. In terms of the benefit I don’t much care now, though there are moments in the past 20 years when it would have been handy…

Brown’s Budgets – As Seen from Overseas

Is it too late for e-government to save us?

A friend flying back from the “Sub-continent” via Abu Dhabi, brought some local newspapers. From abroad, the view of Britain is strikingly different to that portrayed by the BBC and the UK media.

Whilst some coverage by overseas media could be put down to local hostility, such as over Iraq, much of the adverse comment in overseas English language newspapers appears carefully researched and considered.

The Dubai “Gulf News” of 2nd December 2004, had an “opinion” piece by Tom Bower author of the biography “Gordon Brown” entitled: “Brown’s magic has run out of business.” It is available at:

http://www.gulf-news.com/Articles/Opinion2.asp?ArticleID=141942

Tom Bower demolishes the myth that New Labour has run the UK economy well and describes how Gordon Brown has in fact systematically wrecked a healthy economy. The following quotes give a flavour:

“Brown’s reputation for “genius” as chancellor has always been an illusion conjured by himself and sustained by obliging journalists, dispirited conservatives and Labour’s hunger for success…

“…Britain’s pensions and savings have been wrecked by his annual £5 billion (Dh35 billion) tax, his persistent damnation of Britain’s financial and insurance institutions and his destruction of the popular PEPs. He has forced the country towards means-tested welfare benefits wasting at least £15 billion (Dh105 billion).

“His desire to change society also embraced a myriad of wasteful schemes including the New Deal, Independent Learning Accounts, tax credits and the simultaneous re-nationalisation of the rail network and semi-privatisation of the London Underground…

“…Compared with other countries, Britain’s productivity growth since 1997 is low its manufacturing output has diminished, its investment in R&D is minuscule and the explosion of increased taxation and regulations has stifled innovation…

“…he will boast about the economy’s three per cent annual growth, but in reality, that growth is practically all generated by government consumption, not the real economy. In the last quarter, growth was 1.4 per cent, but only 0.16 per cent was not created by Brown’s inflated bureaucracy…

“…Hence the widespread conviction that the economy is heading south. Once again, this week he will spin Britain as a centre of scientific excellence…

“…But that, too, is an illusion made worse by the chancellor himself. In just one week, Exeter University has announced the closure of its chemistry department and Imperial College has predicted that 50 per cent of its students will be foreign. Labour has failed to restrain the collapse of maths teaching.

“…Manufacturing under Brown has declined. Britain has little to sell to China or India. The chancellor is appealing to shadows of a bygone era which he has lamentably failed to restore…

“…His supporters will hail their hero once again. They love his redistribution of wealth to create a socialist Britain reminiscent of Harold Wilson’s dreams.”