30th April 2012

Liam Fox made a bid for fame recently, arguing that the only way forward for the country was deeper cuts and making it easier for employers to fire people.

What is becoming clear is that the con-dem government is in a sorry mess.

It is time that Nick Clegg apologised.

It is also time that we had an opportunity to pass electoral judgement on the posh folk we put in charge.

There is almost no agreement from economists, the commentariat or the opposition that austerity is the way forward.

The economy has continued to shrink and has slipped into recession.

Some years ago I had a meeting with an Architect to discuss work that needed doing on the church of which I was vicar.

Inevitably the conversation turned on how things were generally.

He told me that he did very little design work now because as his business had expanded and he had taken on more staff his role had changed and he spent his time ensuring that the work came in steadily because as he explained, he was now responsible for twenty mortgages being paid.

I saw him as a socially responsible employer.

Shame on Liam Fox for his right wing views which surely by now have been so discredited that they have no place in public discourse?

In France the remarkable resurgence of the socialist candidate is a strong indication that, at  least in Europe, people are beginning to respond to the austerity programme adopted across the eurozone and to reject it as a way forward.

Time will tell whether here in the UK a similar sense will emerge that we are on the wrong path, socially and economically.

Despite the protests to the contrary there can be no serious justification made for the massive bonuses paid, either to CEO's or to Bankers.

It is a simple matter of plain fact that nobody needs £17.7 Million as an annual salary when, as an example, a young couple can raise a family of four on less that £25,000 a year or a pensioner couple live out the latter days of their life on an income in the teens of thousands.

Concern for the poor lies a the heart of the major faiths.

It is always God's preference that the poor should be treated with fairness and justice.

In Roman Catholic theology the preferential option for the poor is a key yardstick for measuring the justice inherent in any society.

In the Jewish tradition and in Islam there is an option for the poor at the heart of society which the community is constantly called to respect and honour.

An annual salary measured in the teens of millions is an offence not only in the sight of God but it makes no actual sense at all economically, socially or politically.

As a new report published by the Church of Scotland observes, 'some in our society are making huge financial gains whilst for too many this winter the stark choice is whether to heat or eat as they cannot afford to do both every day'.


This is of course considered careful language, for many people such language is no longer appropriate in the face of the scandalous disregard that some show toward the poor and the indifference with which they happily scoop up rewards out of all proportion to the effort they make.

Millions of pounds for advice and consulting and directorships that involve a couple of meetings a year.

The Prime Minister continues to protest that there is no alternative and that the policies he is pursuing are right and that he is the best person to lead the country.

Meanwhile the welfare budget will be raided again, many of the announced cuts are yet to take effect and whilst it seems daft to announce a drought in the middle of the wettest April it is not daft to demand an end to punitive measures which penalise the poor when the wealthy have so many ways of sidestepping their obligations.

If Liam Fox has his way it may become easier for employers to dismiss employees without much thought or consequence but by the same token we could demand that people should be able to dismiss governments as governments can dismiss delinquent cabinet ministers ......

23rd April 2012

Having just returned home from ten weeks in Spain I have to admit that I am shocked by prices.

Everything from Rioja to Rolls is more expensive.

Italy was more expensive than here so coming home was a return to common sense, but when we could enjoy a two and a half hour Menu del Dia, three courses, bread, olives and wine for six Euros in Spain, well, we put weight on!

It seemed rude not to!

Meanwhile the Euro Zone crisis rolls on.

The Dutch Government has resigned. Mr Sarkozy is in trouble. Angela Merkel is not looking forward to doing business with the new French President and Spain is forecast to be the next Greece.

I felt this on Saturday listening to the Man U - Everton game on the car radio as I drove back from Bradford.

Every step forward that United took, after they levelled the score just before half time, every goal was immediately followed by an equaliser.

4-4 the final score. Attrition by goal inflation!

Doubtless the blue side of Manchester was delighted, suddenly the Premiership Title, which had been disappearing over the horizon as Manchester United began to practise their own goal inflation, began to come back into focus as the goal difference was dramatically reduced along with the points tally.

The same is true in other economies. Take Oranges as an example.

Today I bought four Spanish oranges, they were reduced to Two Pounds, fifty pence an orange.

In Spain I could buy a large sack by the roadside, thirty or forty oranges, for Three Euros.

Of course, despite Global warming, we still don't grow oranges in Cumbria, but then in Spain whilst they grow them, they don't always pick them because there is no value in the crop and the picking costs more than the oranges are worth, so often they are left to rot on the trees or, as we routinely observed, allowed to fall to the ground or in one hacienda we passed regularly, onto the road where they were juiced by the passing traffic.

Despite not having much of a facility with language I like the idea of being European of travelling to different countries, enjoying the food, the weather, the scenery and the culture, I like the idea so much that I really want Barcelona to beat Chelsea, for no other reason than I enjoyed watching Barcelona play and on one occasion was allowed to watch a United match on a small screen in an Irish Bar in Barcelona whilst Barcelona played on the big screen and, when United scored, the crowd in the bar cheered encouragingly, whilst urging their team on to victory.

As the con-dem government veers from one crisis to another, none of which are dealt with satisfactory, the tectonic plates of the global economy are shifting, Europe is struggling to steer a course through its current crises and Asia continues to establish itself as the manufacturing and economic centre of the world.

Times are, as a troubadour once observed, changing but tragically no one appears to notice.

The con-dem government appears to have no plan, no strategy and no real sense of direction.

Meanwhile the crises, pasties, pensions and the price of oranges continues to challenges everyone except the bankers.

My particular bete noir is inflation. As I have observed before it is an iniquitous tax on the poor.

The pension increase was in fact not an increase it was simply a redressing of the inflation balance which had reduced the value of the pension by five per cent.

To add a sense of practical and fairly simple fact to the mix, the granny tax scandal is not reducing the elderly persons tax rate. As my tax statement nopted the old age pension itself is taxed, but the DWP do not reclaim the tax, so it is taken off the tax free allowance and repossessed, robbed, and pilfered from the occupational pension which was paid for out of taxed income.

Meanwhile the fortunes of some in government and their pensions were protected by being invested in tax havens.

The public demand to know the truth ............

18th October 2012

Malaga Airport is a very long shiny shed by the sea with air conditioning.

It is fairly close to another shiny shed called Ikea.

One shiny shed sells flat pack furniture, the other flat packs people into long shiny cylinders and transports them to distant places.

The Irishman waiting for the Aer Lingus flight to Dublin ordered a Bacardi and Coke, he tendered a fifty euro note, I guess because he lives in a eurozone country, unlike me, he wasn't hoping to dispense with his euros, but dispense with them he did.

Cursing the cost he picked up his tray from the bar counter and as he did so, the tray flexed, (was it an Ikea tray?) and the plastic glass with the ice slid sideways onto the floor, as he tried to catch it the Bacardi rolled in the opposite direction closely followed by the coke bottle, (try screwing the lid off that without getting a coke shower!)

As he scrabbled around on the floor for his Bacardi and his coke, the imprecations were just wonderfully scatological, he was obviously free associating as he went about his business of rescuing his drink.

Of course I helped, I picked up the coke as he retrieved the Bacardi, I said stirred not shaken!

It was offered as a form of condolence or homage to his poetic utterances, worthy almost of Mr Heaney himself.

It is marvellous how even swearing in Irish always takes the form of poetry or prayers.

The dogs were howling too as they were packed in their cages ready for their flights, at first we wondered if it was a dog show or one of those circuses, where dogs entertain by performing tricks, on and off small tables, climb up and slide down slides and, when not entertaining others, entertain themselves by smelling each others bottoms.

Then it was time to board our flight.

easyjet are a very efficient company. Our flight took off and landed on time. The flight was uneventful. The staff were efficient and hospitable. Whilst the passengers needing assistance were boarded last, we were reassured that seats had been reserved and that the staff were expecting us, and it was true.

So the last of the euros went on the wine, in Alhaurin 8.50 would have bought a case of six very drinkable bottles but on the flight it purchased two 1/4 bottles of a third rate Merlot, the palate cleanser, a miniature Gin and Tonic, paid for on a card, cost the same as a Litre bottle of Larios in the supermarket.

But Hey Ho!

We were heading home and very relaxed listening to Chuck Prophet and Temple Beautiful whilst reading Jo Nesbo both on the iPhone, the witchcraft that is apple!

I had to turn the volume up in order to drown out the sound of a student who couldn't stop talking as he recounted the marvelous experiences he had had on his trip to his two companions who presumably having shared them appeared not to need reminding, but who were too kind to ignore him or shut him up.

I got grumpy as old men do, but the in-house critic was altogether more kindly disposed and thought that his verbosity was possibly the result of nervousness, perhaps she suggested, he has a fear of flying.

So here we are again in the land of coalition Government.

David Cameron has attempted to enthuse his cabinet colleagues with his vision of the future of coalition government whilst a select committee has queried the Chancellors sums and criticised both his arithmetic and his strategy which has brought more people into the 40% rate whilst lifting some out of the 50% without, it seems, adequate regard for whether his sums add up.

That redoubtable institution the Menu del Dia is served in restaurants in Spain because the Government feels that each citizen has a right to a decent meal at a fair price, bit like school dinners for grown ups, and like pasty's tax is paid.

But what those who bemoan the granny tax are on about I don't know because when I got back I received my tax return, yes I got the age related allowance of £10500 but what no-one bothers to admit is that it is then reduced by the amount of the  state pension, which means that my tax free allowance is less than £2000.

Its all smoke and mirrors.

Like balancing a Bacardi, a coke and a plastic glass with ice on a flexible tray.

Expletives deleted!

13th April 2012

Friday the 13th.

No walking under ladders today then?

Definitely a day for avoiding black cats?

I didn't spot the date this morning as I have not been wearing my watch but noticed it when I switched on my computer at 3 44pm.

Just as well really as, whilst I don't consider myself to be superstitious, it's as well to be cautious when the signs are all there.

In fact knowing that I would have largely completed my locum chaplaincy here in Alhaurin after Easter, I checked for available flights some time ago and seem to recall that the choice was between a flight today or one next Tuesday, and, because I realised that it was Friday the 13th, I chose next Tuesday's flight.

But no-one else has commented on the date.

Like St Paul the Prime Minister is in journeying's often as he flits around Burma and Indonesia on his tour of Japan and South East Asia.

Not sure where he is this Friday the 13th but I hope he's avoiding black cats and walking under ladders.

I certainly hope that he is travelling safely and that nothing unlucky befalls him as he flies the flag for Britain and British trade and celebrates the slow emergence of democracy in Burma.

He may of course have read the article in today's Times in which his premiership is reviewed and, it appears, found wanting, but he needn't worry overly much because of course this is Britain and coups are not the British way of doing business, so it is unlikely that whilst he is away another aspirant Prime Minister will 'nick' his job.

But then it is Friday the 13th! so I hope that he is keeping his eyes open and knows what Boris's schedule is for today.

The commentator in The Times seems to feel that, as Mr Cameron is not Mrs Thatcher, that we should be keeping an eye on the next generation of women MP's.

The current big debate is about the implications of the tax changes affecting those who donate large sums to charities.

Charities are leading the charge, which is now joined by the Universities, the fear is that the rule change will mean people giving less because they will not be able to offset their giving against tax.

Until the change comes into effect in 2013 it is still possible to give to a charity out of untaxed income and then pay tax on the residual income, so wealthy donors, instead of paying tax on their income, give it away and pay less, sometimes no, tax at all.

This is apparently called philanthropy, a love of or for your fellow men and women.

The Chancellor felt that it had become a euphemism for tax avoidance which he didn't approve of.

This is not the same as setting up a company to reduce tax liability, although some wealthy people have set up 'charities' of their own as a tax avoidance/reduction strategy.

However, if the Government decides what it's expenditure is going to be in a given financial year and how much tax it needs to pay for that expenditure, and then allows some very wealthy people to give their money directly to charity and not pay tax, then everyone else has to pay more tax if there is not to be a shortfall of income over expenditure.

So as far as I can see, if extremely wealthy person X decides to give his money to charity Y which I may or may not approve of personally, then, because he doesn't pay tax on that £250,000 or so, I will have to pay more tax.

However if I sign a covenant and make a donation to a charity out of my already taxed income, the charity can already claim back the tax I have paid??

Am I missing something?

It seems to me that the playing field needs to be levelled here.

I think everyone should pay tax and give to the charity of their choice out of taxed income, charities can then claim the tax back on covenanted giving.

I know it means introducing a middle man or woman but better that than the current system which is hard to regulate and harder to police.

The clear implication of this is that charity should be regulated better and the Charity Commission should have greater capacity to ensure that regulation is effective.

The changes announced in the Budget appear to be contradicting the big society initiative but given the lack of clarity in the big society idea it would seem that anything could either contradict or support the big society without actually making it any clearer or easier to define.

The new Labour narrative, as in new or novel, rather than as in New Labour, is that the con-dems are confused, inept and have no strategy or if they do they keep contradicting it.

But maybe they're just unlucky, perhaps they'll call an election on Friday the 13th and then introduce a law banning black cats and walking under ladders?

11th April 2012

Almost everyone it seems knows, knows of or is related to someone who was on the fateful maiden voyage of the Titanic.

My connection is as the Priest in Charge, technically curate, of Farlam in Cumbria.

The Chief Engineer of the Titanic, Mr Joseph Bell was born in Farlam and is memorialised in the Churchyard.

I must confess to being a bit surprised by all the interest in the Titanic.

A new Titanic Museum on Belfast.

The memorial cruise of the Balmoral.

What has, for the past hundred years, been something of an embarrassment has suddenly become a cause celebre.

After all, the ship, newly launched, departs with a fanfare and a few days later, collides with a huge ice-berg and sinks.

It begs the question were there Polar Bears on the ice-berg and how did they fare?

But there it is, the Titanic is in the news and the name is on everyone's lips.

Presumably the Captain of the Balmoral will be keeping a weather eye open for ice-bergs, my advice if one suddenly appears out of the left ice field is keep on full speed ahead, run into it, jam the ships prow into the fissure created and it should keep you afloat until help gets there!

Given global warning and the melting of the ice cap there are likely to be less ice-bergs about so the memorial cruise should be without mishap unlike other recent cruises and all the jokes on the internet about how passengers on Italian Cruise ships like their drinks 'on the rocks' etc.

So this is a year of celebrations and bank holidays, Titanic celebrating the British approach to most things, (it's not the winning, it's the taking part!); the Diamond jubilee and of course the Olympics.

By the time we've found the lifeboats, had the street parties and run three times round the block we will all be exhausted by September.

Photographs of the Captain of the Titanic, Captain E. J. Smith shows him with a Beard, he is far too important to be smiling, and it seems from his uneventful life up until the ice-berg loomed out of the fog, he had precious little to smile about and by the time it was all over presumably the irony would have been lost on him.

However another man with a beard is described on his invitation to join him on Twitter, as 'the smiley man with the beard'.

So what is the Chairman of Virgin Group smiling about now?

Well it seems that the latest in a long line of acquisitions means that what used to be public services, operated by public companies, subject to public accountability is being transferred into the hands of a private company answerable to its shareholders

It seems that Virgin has now find the right partner with which to enter a new and prosperous field, health care, Assura Medical now re Bransoned, Virgin Health.

Bart Johnson (not Bart Simpson) is quoted as saying:

'We are now providing over 80 NHS services and we aim for each one of them to be good enough for our own families'.

So that's reassuring.

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe it is OK for public services, trains, planes, etc to be operated within the private sector, but the con-dems were elected on a ticket of protecting the NHS not selling it off or privatising it.

It seems to me that at some point in the not too distant future a child will emerge from the maternity unit of a virgin hospital, the virgin condom having failed to perform effectively or efficiently, to be be educated in a virgin school (presumably that is on the virgin agenda?), open a virgin bank account, travel to university on a virgin train, drink virgin cola or virgin wine, take a virgin holiday on a virgin plane, watch virgin TV on a virgin broadband connection, call home on a virgin mobile and finally boldly go via virgin galactic into what has already been branded as virgin territory, currently known as Space or sometimes, the final frontier.

No wonder the bearded one is smiling a smiley smile, I just wonder if he's on the Titanic memorial voyage?

9th April 2012

Death and taxes they say are the only certainties.

Tax credits are a contradiction in this context, after all there is no such thing as a death credit.

Apart of course from Easter when Christians celebrate what Mr Cameron apparently has some issues with, the Resurrection or the death credit.

But it has been applied only once unless of course you count Lazarus.

Not satisfied with taxing earnings of course recent Governments have also taxed spending.

So the majority of us pay tax on what we earn at a rate varying by the amount we actually earn, 10%, 20%, 40% or 45%.

Then we pay more tax on what we buy.

Be that warm pasties or just about anything else, VAT or Value Added Tax is paid at 20%.

So of the, to quote a former Prime Minister who was a hero of mine, pound in your pocket, you actually have 80 pence to spend and if you buy something for 50 pence, then of the 30 pence you have left another 30 pence has disappeared from your pocket into the Government's pocket.

Unless, of course you spent it on an alcoholic beverage, cigarettes or fuel for your car.

Then other factors apply.

Taxes are ratcheted up for reasons connected with the general health of the nation or the need to fill in the pot holes in the nations roads.

Apparently in an attempt to make sense of taxation the Chancellor has tried some rationalisation. So pensioners who have traditionally had a higher personal allowance, seen their personal allowance be brought into line with the allowance received by the lower paid.

Seems fair enough to me.

After all it was obvious that raising the bar on low earnings and allowing the low paid to keep more of their earnings meant that the pensioners allowance would either be subsumed into the new rate or increased disproportionately.

As far as I can tell I don't actually pay more tax on my pension I just pay it on my wine and my fuel.

Which brings me to the question: Why?

As I write I am drinking a sparkling white wine, a Cava bought in my local Lidl in Spain for about £1 50.

In my local Lidl in Carlisle it would be more expensive, at least 28% more expensive because in the UK sparkling wine attracts an excise duty of 28.47% (the actual figure might be higher after recent budgets) in addition to the 20% VAT.

So wine that can be sold in Europe for £5 00 will in cost the the British consumer about £7 50.

VAT is charged in Europe but there is no excise duty.

A similar picture emerges with regard to fuel.

According to Quentin Wilson, Britain has the highest fuel duty in the EU, in rough terms we pay as much in tax as the fuel actually costs, representing a rate of taxation at almost 100%.

Tax is what Governments charge people in order to finance their expenditure. Additionally of course taxation is used to achieve certain moral goods, reduce the health risks (and costs) associated with smoking or drinking alcohol.

Some Government expenditure is of immediate benefit to individuals and to society as a whole, education, welfare (including pensions), infrastructure development, refuse collection.

So here is a big society debate worth having.

Let's have a serious debate about tax, by all means let's tax earnings, but the issue of taxing spending  needs reviewing, especially when the Government are trying to use taxation to improve individuals lifestyle choices, history makes it clear that you cannot legislate for goodness.

Once I've paid tax on my pension I want to be left free to decide whether I stay in and enjoy a bottle of wine, walk to the pub and enjoy a pint of beer or decide not to drink at all and drive into town to see a film, listen to live music or watch a football match.

My choice, my money, I've paid my taxes and can make my own decisions on how I spend what's left as a responsible member of of the big society.

As for death I've donated my body to science ............

5th April 2012

Today HM The Queen distributes the Royal Maundy at York Minster.

172 people, 86 Men and 86 Women one for each of the Queen's 86 years, will receive the Maundy Money and this, year in addition to the specially minted Maundy coins, they will receive a £5 piece to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

Also today all pensioners will receive a 5% increase in their pensions.

So is it a Royal Maundy for everyone?

Well no, not really, because of course the 5% represents the amount the pension has been reduced in value over the year as a result of inflation. So what has happened is that theoretically the pension has been restored to its value as on the 5th April 2011.

Although not quite, because RPI has been massaged to remove some key elements from the basket by previous administrations of both left and right.

However, pensioners are luckier than most other folk who share in the welfare cake, because the guarantee of 2.5%, CPI or RPI, which ever is the greater, is only offered to pensioners.

Other beneficiaries of the welfare state in the UK will receive less, much less.

CPI measures approximately half of RPI with a slightly lower rate of year on year inflation.

So for families the burden of the pain of paying the deficit, inherited, not from Labour as the con-dem Government persists in saying, but from the financial crisis precipitated by irresponsible business practises in the financial sector, will be almost twice that of pensioners.

The obvious danger is that in the months ahead we will see child poverty increase as more children grow up in families with a low and reducing income.

Big Society Capital.

Too little too late?

Shifting the charitable and voluntary sector from its dependency on grants and donations to social enterprise?

Maybe.

But then by the same token the budget has made it harder to donate by changing the rules with regard to gift aid and, according to some, put another nail in philanthropy's coffin.

At the same time families with children are put further under the cosh with changes to tax relief, more changes to welfare to reduce spending in the next financial year and, after all that sunshine, snow.

Weasel words in Downing Street from a Prime Minister who apparently applauds the Churches contribution to his big society vision but who struggles with the idea of a resurrection.

Apparently the con-dems are governing with their eyes on the horizon not the headlines.

So that's OK.

Now all is clear.

The Royal Maundy was a response to the new commandment given by Jesus to his followers, to love one another.

He then washed their feet as a servant.

Originally in England the king washed the feet of poor people in in his realm. But eventually the custom of giving money for each year of age or reign was substituted, all that remains of the originally footwashing ceremony are the nose gays, small bunches of perfumed flowers to hide the aromas of smelly feet! and the towels still carried in the present day ceremony.

In 1997 I was involved in the service in Bradford and found it impressive.

As part of my role at the Cathedral I hosted the lunch for the recipient's, in 1997 that amounted to 142 people.

If the Prime Minister finds the resurrection hard then Jesus command at that Passover Meal was easy enough, love one another.

What we need to see from this Government is an effort to move from lunching with the highest bidder or reducing taxes for the wealthiest to finding ways of introducing the structural justice and fairness, symbolised by the Maundy Monies, across the broad reach of what in a civilised country we might call a welfare society that legislates for the common good.

3rd April 2012

So the blogging continues.

It may not change much but it is a form of resistance.

Technology allows us to say that what is happening is not actually happening in our name, we didn't vote for it and we want it to end.

If I had the kind of talent, I would rather be Captain Ska and set my blog to a catchy beat with a great video to accompany it, but I'm not, so all I can do is continue to publish the words as they occur to me.

I remain somewhat unconvinced that President Obama is such a big fan of Prime Minister Cameron after his comments about social Darwinism but there we are, maybe it's the special relationship, maybe it's that he simply wants to position himself against the republicans but of course social Darwinism is exactly the name of the con-dem game arguing, as they appear to do that the best adapted and most successful social groups survive and in doing so raise the evolutionary level of society generally, that is to say that the fittest survive.

So the bankers continue to do well.

The MP's obviously are OK.

The CEO's who sit on each others pay review bodies continue to award themselves unbelievable bonuses and pay awards, now calculated in the millions.

Tory party treasurers do OK as do the echelons of advisers, bag carriers and hangers on that surround the inner circle of the privileged and the blessed who don't have to produce a passport to enter Downing Street as though it were another country!

The worst outcome of the election has been in my view having to listen to William Hague, banging on about whatever it is he is banging on about.

A friend of mine had a wonderful voice, it was deep and resonant and rich, he was a clergyman and his sermons were mesmerising, not because of the words but because his voice was so reassuring, he began to do some broadcasting and complained to me that someone had said to him in the studio after a recording session, I wish I had your voice I could have made a fortune.

I commented that that was a compliment but his real complaint was that he had not made a fortune.

I have just spent three hours researching and writing my script for Good Friday.

My theme is the bad guys at the cross. So we are looking at Judas, Barabbas and the Roman Soldiers.

Three hours researching and writing.

Possibly twenty folk in attendance.

If I was Giles Fraser thinking aloud I bet I would get more than I will get paid which is exactly nowt!

But then I don't have a silky, rich, dark sienna, voice, although someone did once say that I sounded a bit like, well exactly like actually, Mike Harding.

Margaret Thatcher the great social Darwinist of her day was MP for Finchley, which was appropriate, given the importance of Finches in the Origin of the Species, she thought that there was no such thing as society, David Cameron is more enlightened and believes that there is a big society, its just that he cannot actually describe it, and any way has rather lost interest in it for now.

Margaret Thatcher's guru, Norman, Now Lord, Tebbit, has been weighing in recently to criticise the current con-dem aristocracy as a Government of Chums and another conservative blogger is arguing that the current leadership have got the wrong priorities, the wrong ideology, the wrong politics and the wrong team.

It would seem that its all too far to the left?

So hopefully if I persevere with the blogging and Captain Ska gets into the Top Ten and we all keep the faith, then maybe, just maybe the coalition will collapse, the blue fringed Tories will throw out the woolly liberals and this whole Eton Mess can be put behind us ...........