although my memory is somewhat hazed by alcohol, i seem to remember that council tax was not payable on the Isle of Man yessir. maybe i am sad but i follow @richardjmurphy on twitter. here is his latest blog. http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/...x-evasion-tax-avoidance-and-benefit-cheating/ quiet apt given the direction this thread has taken
Zambia just told Rwanda to get lost with an extradition request for those involved in the genocide. The chair of the Genocide inquiry was a Zambian... I don't know if that was relevant but I suspect there is more to it than meets the eye. Rwanda need to sort their **** out with regards to DR Congo before they start shouting the odds at Zambia.
I must say i'm in total agreement with this part: 'Benefit fraud is, on the other hand, with odd exceptions, petty crime. That’s still important. But to pretend that shoplifting has the moral equivalence of pre-meditated murder, which Pecorelli’s argument would suggest, is ludicrous. We know that is not true. We rightly dedicate different resources to dealing with each because their impact is very different. We even know their motivation is different. I’m still not excusing crime, but there’s not a shadow of doubt that some benefit cheating is motivated by a desire to simply provide the basics of life to a family. I don’t excuse the way it is done, but I can understand the motive. I cannot say the same of tax avoidance and tax evasion. Morally they are simply not equivalents, and I am shocked that the Fabians have published an article suggesting that might be the case.'
Africa is in a bigger mess that the middle east but goes more or less unreported. I'm not defending the Israelis but they seem to the World's bogey men and when you look at what's happening in Africa and especially people like Mugabe, it really does make you shake your head. STOCKHOLM, Sweden â The eyes of the world were on South Africa two decades ago as the apartheid era came to an end and Western governments helped bring the communist-backed African National Congress to power. Last month, however, when Genocide Watch chief Gregory Stanton declared that white South African farmers were facing a genocidal onslaught and that communist forces were taking over the nation, virtually nobody noticed. Few outside of South Africa paid attention either when, earlier this year, the president of South Africa began publicly singing songs advocating the murder of whites. The silence is so deafening that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton didnât even publicly mention the problems when she was there last week. Instead, she was busy dancing, pledging billions of dollars and praising the ruling government. âI find that quite disturbing, as if Afrikaner lives do not count for the Obama administration,â Dan Roodt of the Pro-Afrikaans Action Group, PRAAG, told WND. He says the situation is rapidly deteriorating. The tyranny of political correctness is out of control. Read Ilana Mercerâs âInto The Cannibalâs Pot: Lessons for America from Post-Apartheid South Africa.â Genocide Watch, a highly respected U.S.-based nonprofit organization led by arguably the worldâs foremost expert on genocide, has been sounding the alarm on the genocidal onslaught facing South Africa for a decade. The world media, however, has barely uttered a word about it. Over those 10 years, thousands of white South African farmers, known as Boers, have been massacred in the most horrific ways imaginable. Experts say the ongoing slaughter constitutes a clear effort to exterminate the whites or at least drive the remaining ones â now less than 10 percent of the population â out of the country. In other words, South Africa is facing a genocide based on the United Nationsâ own definition. More than 3,000 farm murders have been documented in that time period, representing a significant number considering the number of commercial white farmers is now estimated at less than 40,000. http://www.wnd.com/2012/08/genocide-looms-for-white-farmers/
" ... the 41,000 cases of deliberately marketed tax avoidance not yet addressed by H M Revenue & Customs have a total cost of £10.2 billion or an average of £248,780 each. On the other hand, the average case of local authority benefit cheating identified in a report, also in November 2012, from the Audit Commission is £2,166. There were 54,000 such cases." As I implied in a previous post, I think talking about the 'morality' of these issues is a bit of a red herring. The impact of the tax cheats' actions far outweighs that of the benefit cheats and while benefit fraud is undoubtedly distasteful, it is nothing short of disgraceful that government and the media continue, in the main, to focus on it rather than on the tax cheats.
undoubtably. however, politicians will always wax lyrical about this stuff as it is a vote winner. the majority of the population is de politicised, they lap this ****e up, all people care about is who won x factor. in australia all we hear about is boat people, the press refuse to accept that these people are human, makes it easier to be negative. there was a rally and some ****ing red necks had t shirts with "bomb their boats" written on them. it makes me ashamed that people are no longer people but political pawns
Yes. I am not as up on African goings on as I once was. The focus was always on Mugabe and not what was happening elsewhere. The reason was that Mugabe could exert influence on the other countries around him so the FCO saw that as a threat whereas what is happening in South Africa doesn't register at all. Zimbabwe is outside the fold. South Africa is not.
Yes. I am not as up on African goings on as I once was. The focus was always on Mugabe and not what was happening elsewhere. The reason was that Mugabe could exert influence on the other countries around him so the FCO saw that as a threat whereas what is happening in South Africa doesn't register at all. Zimbabwe is outside the fold. South Africa is not.
Indeed Reb but if you read the report in my attachment to my earlier post you will see that Rwanda needs sorting out in a lot more areas than it's 'dealings' with DRC ...
I think that applies to much of Africa as a whole. Corruption is endemic throughout the continent. Nobody seems to be able to be able to do much about it because it is a rare thing that a rival party can claim to be "clean" when launching a campaign against corruption. Abusing the system is seen as a perk of office rather than an abuse of it. Even in instances where folk can launch an offensive against it, it is almost impossible to get the right people in with the right skills to head up such a campaign and even to stay in power long enough to see things through to the end. I noted the life expectancy on that link was 55. I understand it is 54 for males in the East end of Glasgow. The disparity with neighbouring wards is astounding.
Yes, corruption is endemic in African countries for sure but resolving it isn't helped by greedy Western Governments sucking up to rotten regimes mainly because they have an eye to the possibility of getting their hands on some of the incredible mineral wealth in these countries. That's unbelievable about the life expectancy in the East end of Glasgow - what's being done about it?
I'd agree with that but that isn't to say that the greedy African Governments don't act greedy all by themselves. I'll cite Zambia again as an example primarily as it is the one I have had most experience with. Profits from Diamond mines and particularly copper mines getting siphoned off through government accounts to various high ranking figures. Meanwhile SEVEN MILLION people are starving. I cannot reconcile that with the role of a public servant at all,and that should seem like such an obvious thing to say but for some reason it isn't. As for Glasgow, I don't know what is being done. The Government of the day congratulated itself on the fact that all life expectancy was improving at the same rate across the UK.
Hence my use of the term 'rotten regimes' - I think we're more or less singing from the same hymn sheet in respect of African countries, Reb. Would be interesting to know someone's take on those Glasgow East end stats who lives or is originally from, there ...
