Rant 83 - 23/3/12 Subject: Taxes for our own good

Rant number 83


On the radio today, someone summed out how I feel about many of the taxes the government are continually pumping out.

For those not familiar with the latest - they've decided to take the pressure off their Budget follies (like trying to delve further into the purses of retirees and put it into their rich friends pockets for instance) by hitting out at drinkers.

They're going to up the prices of alcohol to at least 40p a litre - to prevent binge drinking culture. This will restrict strong lager to costing at least £1.20 a can. In other words: Just another kick in the balls for the little guy.

I get that binge drinking is a problem - putting pressure on the police force & on the NHS. Its not about the prices though! Its the way that our country deals with it.

Europe doesn't get nearly as much of an issue with binge drinking (except for when our young thugs visit of course,) and they give alcohol to the children! When you make it taboo to youngsters like we do - it just makes things so much worse!

I agree, that being able to buy 3 litres of cheap cider containing 15 units - for about £3 quid is stupid - but Being able to buy 10 bottles of beer for £9 quid for instance should not be a problem.

Another thing to bear in mind - is that most people who drink, do so to escape their every day miseries - miseries made all the worse by being taxed to death on anything they enjoy!

The thing that really gets my goat though, is that this is another tax for our own good - Fuckers.

If you are rich, you can drink, smoke, drive & eat as much as you want - to whatever excess you wish (I've not seen too many skinny guys in the house of lords for instance?) but we - the naive general public are too much of a danger to ourselves.

Bear in mind that - the bar in parliament doesn't charge pay tax on their alcohol and was recently the site of a brawl between several MP's. Who needs their alcohol charges putting up again?

To any of you who voted Torie, I really hope you are pleased. I personally would prefer to pull out my own toenails than vote for them - and feel good and screwed.

Bastards

Rant over.

Rant 50 - 19/2/12 Subject: Fuel prices

Rant number 50


Today it was time to fill up once again on the way to band. Another £25 into my small economical car (roughly 19 litres) will last me through to Wednesday if I am very lucky.

I will then probably put in another £25 and - low in behold, this will be gone by the end of Sunday (if not before.)

I am pretty sure that as little as 10 years ago, the first £25 quid would have lasted the week - and potentially beyond. The money just doesn't go as far - literally and figuratively.

I wouldn't even mind if this was simply because of the relative scarcity of fuel we are always being told about. It isn't though, most of the money goes to the government in one way or another.

The first of these taxes is the 'fuel duty' - which is the single most expensive thing you pay for per litre at (as of today) a whopping £0.57p per litre.

The reason for this tax then? Well, this appears to be rather a grey area to be honest. What I can find out is that they do not spend this on our roads - so the whole thing seems quite corrupt to me. Another reason for this being so high is for 'green tax' purposes.

This means simply that they use environmental reasons to fuck you over! You were right Kermit:

It's not easy being green

If they were spending the money on green fuel research I'd get it - but they aren't, its just an exuse to fuck you over.
Its not even like I have much choice - I would loose around 4 hours a week by not driving - and some of the places I need to go (like band) I can't even get to by public transport.

So moving on from there, we pay £0.47p per litre for the actual fuel (that's right, less than just a single tax.) This I understand to a certain extent, it does cost money to get this out of the ground or out of the sea. I am sure that the prices are inflated - but at least you are paying for something!

From there then we move on to VAT (Value Added Tax, for those of you not familiar.)

Hang the fuck on!? I thought we'd paid tax already. But no- we need to be taxed on the tax as well - warped logic or what!

VAT is added to things that are considered luxuries. As such - I really do think that things I use my car for that are essential - like journeys to work - should not be applicable to this. Once again - I think that the government really don't give a shit about this.

The final 5p goes to the retailer which I suppose is fair enough - considering staffing, transport, storage etc etc.

So, the villain of the piece is: resoundingly the fucking government.

We really do get fucked over in this country! Bastards

Rant over.