Modern Life really is rubbish
You could put it down to the jaded cynicism of a man about to close off his 39th year on this green and pleasant planet, but I don’t think so.
In 1997, whilst the great majority of the country were held enraptured by New Labour, I was working on a lucrative contract in Rhode Island, USA. Life was generally sweet. I was self employed. I had the freedom to move about the planet selling my wares and being paid handsomely in return. The handsome pay was fair compensation for no job security and for giving up many rights that employees so often take for granted. I had no holiday pay, no sick pay, no employer pension rights and as director of a limited company, no right to unemployment benefit if the work dried up. In simple terms: no work, no pay, no food. Risk versus reward.
Barely two years into Gordon Brown’s stewardship of the economy and all of that changed. Gordon decided that contractors selling their services to other companies were nothing more than tax cheating scumbags who were really disguised employees of their clients. As a result he decided that said scumbags should apply PAYE to 95% of their company’s turnover, leaving 5% for administration and expenses. Many a socialist would argue that this was only “fairâ€, except that it created a wonderful scenario where you would be classed as an employee for tax reasons, but not for employee rights reasons. In return for a massive tax bill you got: no job security, no holiday pay, no sick pay, no employer pension rights and as director of a limited company, no right to unemployment benefit if the work dried up. It was still a case of no work, no pay, no food. Suddenly, the risk versus reward formula was stacked heavily against self-employment. Thus, the seeds of my hatred for Gordon Brown were taking root.
Over the years he has done nothing to redeem himself. Quite the opposite. The New Labour clones can quote all of Gordon’s miraculous achievements until they are blue in the face. At best they are misled and at worst they are lying. The only good thing Gordon has ever done was to hand control of interest rates to the Bank of England. Everything else is smoke and mirrors. “Extra investment†can just as easily be termed as “extra costâ€. When Gordon raises taxes it is inevitable that the NHS, Education and the Police are all going to cost more. When he says “I have doubled investment in [insert large government institution name here]†he might as well say “I have double the cost base of …†Any remaining money is being haemorrhaged in the sort of huge administration costs that are inevitable when you impose a top down, centrist approach to infrastructure management.
Helping the poor? Give me a break. Tax Credits are a farce. A £2bn a year farce. A farce that leaves many low earners owing the Government £5000.
He is stealing money from our pensions. Thirty years from now when the effects kick in, this will prove to be his biggest mistake. We will have a generation of bitter pensioners who, despite having saved hard all of their working life, will have to rely on the state for basic needs. That or carry on working.
What about Tony? Everyone bought the charisma. There is no denying that at the time he had a certain charm. He succeeded in making the Tories look like dinosaurs. However, it wasn’t long before everyone realised that they had been sold a duffer. The man is full of empty promises. Despite his youthful exuberance he has managed to turn the majority of the public off politics altogether, including a lot of Labour Party members. The New Labour dream is crumbling before him and he is busy organising a farewell tour. If that doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about the man then I don’t what does.
What of the future?
Will Gordon take over? As much as I hate to admit it, I think he will. I cannot see anyone else who can take him on and win. As much as I hate Tony, the one thing I am quietly happy about is the fact that he manages to reign Gordon in from time to time. Gordon claims that he will carry the New Labour torch, but we all know deep down that he is much further to the left than Tony. We will have PM Brown and a Brownite Chancellor. The worst of both worlds.
Civil liberties will continue to disappear in the name of national security. We will all be fingerprinted and DNA profiled like criminals. Our kids are already being fingerprinted just so they can take out library books. Meanwhile the police are busy arresting the victims of crime, kids pass their GCSE’s just by turning up, Doctors are shackled by bureaucracy, Council tax will continue to rise, the term “NHS Dentist” will be consigned to the dustbin of history, gangs of youths will get fed up with knives and move onto guns and speed cameras will turn up on every corner.
Things can only get better? That was their first lie. Modern Life really is rubbish and it is all the fault of New Labour. The bastards are ruining our country and making it a shitty place to live in.
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By Serf, September 13, 2006 @ 12:01 pm
Meanwhile, the leader of her majesty’s opposition, praises the public sector and hugs hoodies.
Sigh…..
By Politicalog, September 13, 2006 @ 2:54 pm
Frustrating, I know. That said, I haven\’t written him off quite yet. I think he is in with a real chance next time around. How much of that is down to him as opposed to New Labour putting off voters remains to be seen.
I can also fully understand his current lack of well designed policy. He is wise to keep his cards close to his chest until the next election looms, lest New Labour steal the bits they like the sound of.
Whilst New Labour struggle with the concept of Blogs and proper unsanitised feedback from the Internet, Cameron would do well to embrace it warts and all. There is a good strong right wing blogging community to be find (in my view stronger than the left). Getting them involved would engage the public in a way that has never been done before. I should be blogging this… Watch this space.
By Tom Paine, September 13, 2006 @ 4:03 pm
It comes to something when our hopes depend on the Leader of the Conservative Party being a liar. Quite right about the bloggers though. The only sane political words being uttered in Britain are to be found in the blogosphere.
By xoggoth, September 15, 2006 @ 4:11 pm
Hey you’re a contractor too! I should have known! I suppose the only thing one can say in Lying Brownstuff’s favour is, erm, I’ve forgotten, but I’m sure I thought of something the other day! The Blithering Cameron looks more and more like a waste of space to me, he had better get a grip of his knickers because at the moment the only party in town worth voting for is looking like UKIP.
By Politicalog, September 22, 2006 @ 10:59 am
Used to be a contractor I’m afraid. Gordo put paid to that.
By sacerdote, December 9, 2006 @ 9:13 pm
I also used to be a contractor, but I packed it in when IR35 came out and drastically downshifted in order not to pay Gordons extra taxes. It just wasn’t worth it for me anymore. I can’t believe I’m the only one, and it sure isn’t helping the economy.
By CBQ, December 13, 2006 @ 9:29 am
As I’ve said over on “Devil’s Kitchen”, any company which employs a contractor is not implicitly taking part in the contractor’s attempts to pay as little tax etc as possible.
1. They contract because the job is not long term enough to take on a full time member of staff
2. If they are acting in their own best interests (which the contractor is also trying to do by paying as little tax as possible)they should ensure the “cost” of paying the contractor for a year is no greater than one year’s costs for a full time employee.
In other words, your fee already includes all the cost of PAYE, NI, Holiday entitlement, Sick Pay etc etc and it’s up to you to set aside that part of your fee to cover those costs.
If you choose to dodge these costs via a loophole which is then closed, you cannot whine on about “losing” part of your pay – it just wasn’t being used correctly by you in the first place i.e. it was going into your pocket rather than paying tax, NI, holiday pay all of which had already been factored in to the “gross” fee.
Get over it or push your fee up and see if the market will still bear your costs….
I agree with everything else you say about the tragedy that is Nu Labour other than the comment that the only good thing was to make the BoE independent.
Yes, this would have been good if it really was independent but, it is not.
By Politicalog, December 13, 2006 @ 12:39 pm
In other words, your fee already includes all the cost of PAYE, NI, Holiday entitlement, Sick Pay etc etc and it’s up to you to set aside that part of your fee to cover those costs.
If your contract is not IR35 caught then I agree completely. If it is IR35 caught then I don’t.
it just wasn’t being used correctly by you in the first place i.e. it was going into your pocket rather than paying tax, NI, holiday pay all of which had already been factored in to the “gross†fee.
That is my point precisely. Previously the extra cash flow would be set aside to cover periods where you were out of work, sickness, holiday and time between contracts.
With IR35 you have to cover that out of taxed income.
Also as I said on DK’s blog, you cannot simply put fees in your pocket and avoid paying tax.