Apple, Wozniak,Tax and Morality

Steve Wozniak, one of the co-founders of Apple, has been on TV criticizing the company's tax policies.  He seems to be saying that Apple has some kind of moral obligation to pay tax.  He is also prattling on about people that live in Nevada, because of the low state taxes there, but work in California.  Note that he doesn't give California politicians a hard time,  for taxing too much, just those people smart enough to refuse to fund wasteful state government spending.

This is the usual 'pulling the ladder up behind them' approach, that we hear from these multi-millionaires and billionaires - once they have their wealth stashed safely away, then they opine that more should be paid in taxes.  They mean you and I and the companies that we work for, should pay more.

Enough already!  If Steve Wozniak or any other of his kind think that they have 'immorally' benefited from tax laws then do something about it - actions not words.  Why not take these 'ill-gotten' gains and simply give them to the governments concerned.  Don't try and get laws changed for the future.  

Steve and Co.    If you want to do something useful with your wealth, spend the money campaigning for the abolition of all taxes, get your hands out of my pocket and those of other people who still have to work for a living.

I find it incredibly difficult to accept that the words tax and morality can reasonably be mentioned in the same sentence. (Though I just did!)  Taxes are government authorized theft.  How can theft ever be 'moral'?

Apple, Google and Starbucks do the same as other companies, they follow the law and take full advantage of the benefits that are out there.  In fact, they do the same as Stemcor.  Never heard of it?  That is the family company of Margaret Hodges, the chair-person of the UK Parliament's Public Affairs Committee.  She is the person we regularly see on TV screens, giving company bosses a hard time because they follow the law, while her family company uses the very same laws to, legally, minimize its tax payments.  Margaret Hodges is said to have a financial interest in Stemcor and that company paid just £163,000 of corporate tax, in 2011, on sales of £2.1 Billion.  To put that into perspective, Starbucks' sales in that year were approximately £377 million or 1/6th and they paid 5 times the corporation tax that Stemcor, the company with which Hodges has links, paid.

Why is it that companies such as Apple, Starbucks and Google don't simply throw these facts back at Ms Hodges (Labour) and tell her to get her own house in order.   If between them they 'grew a pair' what do they think they would lose?

In the UK, Corporation Tax raises around £45 billion a year and accounts for about 8-9% of total taxes raised.  How about simply abolishing this tax?  Then, cut public expenditure to plug the gap.  In truth the gap wouldn't be at the full level as the UK would see a surge in inward investment and more private spending but, even if it didn't, just think how much cleaner we would all feel without seeing Margaret Hodges and her pals in the 'Occupy' and other fringe groups, preaching in the media?  Why do we let the media have these people put their hands in our pockets and force us to listen to their hypocrisy?  

George Osborne - Surely the preceding paragraph is reason enough to become a truly reforming Chancellor?  Doing the right thing and getting up the nose of the Left!

Woolwich from a distance

The UK newspapers will splash the photograph of Drummer Lee Rigby across the front pages today.  You will see someone who was, by all accounts, a decent person and good family man who was proudly serving his country.

You might also see photographs of his murderers.  They are under-arrest and receiving treatment for gun-shot wounds in separate NHS hospitals, in London.  We can but hope that the NHS lives up to recent form (Mid Staffs)  and finds a way to end their lives, just as these two men so brutally ended the life of Lee Rigby.

You may see a photograph of Anjem Choudary.  He was the former leader of al-Muhajirou.  'Former' because this hate-filled organization is now banned.

What you won't see, is Anjem Choudary under-arrest.  Nor photographs of any of the other Islamic extremists that preach hate and violence towards their host or home-country populations.  Neither will you see politicians or read quotes from them advocating the arrest and detention of these people.  Instead you will hear all of the usual politically correct twaddle about 'this is not representative of Islam and Islam is a religion of peace, etc.'. 

Here is what I want to happen. 

Since the security services seem to have some knowledge (names and addresses, etc.)  of these hate-filled individuals, let's get them rounded-up (I know that sounds awfully reminiscent of Nazi, Japanese or even Boer war times but...) All of these that are not UK citizens - deport them - immediately.  If there is any faffing around about Human Rights or Immigration Tribunals, from the usual suspects, pass a quick law to overcome the issue and then deport them.  Parliament did this for so called 'dangerous dogs' so why not for a far greater menace?

For all of these, do not consider that they have any 'right to family life' of other such PC twaddle.  Lee Rigby no longer has any 'right to family life' - these monsters and their supporters, took that away!  So deport them and their families. 

The remainder should only be UK citizens, review their citizenship status and if at all possible, revoke this and deport them and their families.  If they were not born in the UK, then deport them! Simples!

Review all that are receiving state benefits and subject them to a very rigorous review of eligibility.  Then assign either DWP personnel or Police resources to follow them and monitor their communications 24/7.  It is not as if the police are doing anything to actually clean-up other crime, anyway.  So they won't be being diverted.

Prosecute those Imans that preach hate towards the West and our way of life.  The Police and the Crown Prosecution Service find time to chase after anti-homosexual hoteliers  and Social Services go after UKIP supporters, surely they can target those that would kill us on the streets of our cities and towns?

Re-establish controls on the UK border - if the EU protests or says a word - tell them to go to the hell, where these killers will end-up!

Until such time as Muslim community leaders consistently stand-up and speak for their community and say 'we condemn this violence and we will support all efforts to eradicate it and, we unequivocally support the actions taken by the democratically elected UK Government' then exclude them from any and all discussion forums on how to solve the problem.  Their constant equivocation - "yes, we condemn this but you have to understand, that our young people see what is happening in Iraq/Afghanistan/Palestine etc. and ...." is seen for the hollow words that they represent.  They need to continually say 'we condemn this act and those that carried it out'. 

Until they do, they are part of the problem, not the solution.  Make them suffer - no funding from the state, in any form, national or local, nor the National Lottery for their community, none whatsoever.  And do not allow them to receive overseas funding!  It is time to wake-up and to stop fulfilling Lenin's 'prophesy' that the 'capitalists would sell him the rope, with which to hang them'.  In this case UK taxpayers are funding this fifth column of murderers in our midst, and their fellow travelers.  Time to stop!

Some might accuse me of being 'hate filled' or promoting a hate 'agenda'.  I will plead guilty to hating anyone that kills innocent people that are going about their daily lives - and I mean anyone.   This post, if it is anything, is a 'rant' against the UK politicians who, just as on so many other issues, ignore the will of the people. 

Get a polling organisation to ask this question. 
        Do you think that the UK Government should immediately deport Abu Qatada to Jordan
        and then ignore any sanctions imposed by any UK or European Court?  Yes or No

I would expect an overwhelming Yes result.  I would also expect the UK Government to ignore the result.  The UK Government, as with other Western governments, do not represent the people that elect them, they rule over them in what they believe is some kind of paternalistic / maternalistic way, because 'they' know best.  It is precisely this pandering to political correctness that has led us to this state, where we care more for minorities of any sort, than we do for the majority, except that is, one the minority is one and he is a soldier serving his country.  Then the government and the system dives behind platitudes and wrings its collective hands. 

For the UK Government, Condemnation is a just word in the dictionary that comes between acquiescence and cowardice and can be trotted out in a 'template' speech to hide the fact that really, they don't give a damn and have no plans to do anything concrete to correct the situation !!

Changing views on EU

They say that a week is a long time in politics, so the time I have had to reflect since my blog on May 4  - here -  http://bit.ly/15fBz73  should be ample to overcome any claims of hypocrisy.

Here goes.

Not just in the above blog but also in earlier ones, I have strongly suggested that David Cameron needs to have a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU and to have it in this parliament.  In some ways that would still be my preference but considering the politics of the matter - and the mathematics - I am coming around to seeing why that isn't possible and perhaps maybe not even desirable.  Don't worry, the Europhiles have got to me and compromised me into changing my fundamental opinion of the flawed state that is Europe.

The Lib Dems are wedded to Europe.  As a party, this is probably the only unifying policy for them.  On other issues the leadership gets pulled between leftist policies and loony leftist policies but Europe?  No, they all row in the same direction.  To be clear that is row as in a boat not as in an argument!

Labour faces the biggest dilemma over Europe and I sense that David Cameron understands this and is in fact, banking on it.   The dilemma is that many voters are opposed to continuing as a member of the EU, as it is currently constructed.  Maybe they don't all want to leave but many want the rules re-written.  UKIP and the BNP both inhabit the ground where that is most vitriolically espoused - anti-immigration.  Possibly the psephologists and focus group handlers would dispute this but I don't believe that it is only white and blue collar Tories where UKIP's policies resonate.  My life experience suggests that 'natural' Labour supporters would be as anti-immigration as these Tories sometimes appear.  One piece of evidence to mull over - in spite of the economic situation (more on that in a moment), Labour supporters didn't exactly come out in their droves to vote in the recent elections.  Nor, in the national opinion polls, can Labour get to a reasonable level of lead or votes.  Getting around 35 to 38% isn't what anyone would call a massive mandate for change!

The BBC and some other media would have it that the 'Europe question' will do for Cameron and that the Tories are split.  I am coming around to the view (and not just because the BBC is usually wrong on most things) that Europe offers an opportunity for the Tories.

The political system in the UK doesn't favour parties like UKIP.  Their local election showing of mid 20%  will most likely not be sustained in the 2015 General Election (my guess is somewhere around 7-8%) but whatever they get the first past the post system just doesn't work for them or for any small party.  UKIP will have some impact in marginal seats but I think this will equally affect all three parties with perhaps just a bit more impact on Lib Dem marginals!.

So how an opportunity?  Well, consider (and I am sure that David Cameron has), at the next election, voters would be faced with a choice between Labour and the Lib Dems - both pushing policies that say, 'we don't believe the people need to be asked about our country's future and its relations with the EU' - and the Tories saying - 'we think that the EU project needs fixing and, if it can't be fixed in a manner that we believe is acceptable, Britain should leave the EU, however, this is far too important a decision for politicians, the choice needs to be made by the people of Britain'.  I know which policy would get my vote. 

Forget anything else about this but remember this - the British have an instinctive dislike of things non-democratic.  They may not bother to vote, but just try taking away their right to vote.  The British look at the EU and see gaping holes where democracy should be representing them and instead they see elsewhere a fat and corrupt elite, lording it over them.  The European way of dealing with tyrannies and out of touch elites is often through revolution, the British way is through the ballot box. 


For the Tories then, keep Europe on the agenda, push and support the Private Member's Bill that enshrines a 2017 referendum and then push the 'we trust the people' line, time after time.  It is a very simple but no less powerful message and one which will find the Labour and Lib Dems, wanting and struggling to say why they do not trust the people.

So, keep that one bubbling away - be thankful that UKIP will also keep it on the boil - but then focus, focus, focus on the economy in a holistic way (sorry Roberto!).  Taxes, welfare education and spending.  Get these under control and keep banging on about the inherited mess.  On the latter the Tories are pushing against an open door.  Any sane person can see that the Brown-inspired and debt-funded party was unsustainable. 

Oh, and on the NHS - go for Labour.  Mid Staffs is the symptom of all that is wrong with the NHS.  Every time Andy Burnham speaks - every time - ask him why he hasn't resigned over the 1,200 deaths - every time.  Fix Labour's central mis-management as the core issue around the NHS.

Not quite a convert to Cameron's coalition but now facing in the same direction, I suppose.

And Mr Cameron, if you read this, a bit more muscular with the Lib Dems, please.  The occasional slap-down won't hurt them or you.  Finally, suggest you start to distance yourself from Obama, he is tainted by Benghazi and the IRS scandals, as will be his second term.

Local lessons

No doubt the psephologists and political pundits will study the entrails of the English local elections and produce all sorts of weird and wonderful (and naturally, unbiased!) analysis and commentary on these but here is my take.

May as well get the Lib Dems out of the way first, which I think is something that could well happen or largely happen at the next general election.  For them a very bad night.  They lost 124 seats or mare than 25% of those they were defending.  Being a member of the Coalition they could have expected some punishment but they are supposed to be strong in local government.  It is at these 'grass roots' levels that they have built and nurtured their base and on the back of this, their move to Westminster.  That foundation was badly damaged on May 2nd.  Maybe irreparably.  Their will no doubt be talk of a Conservative leadership challenge, need for a change, etc., but I think the more likely one to be challenged is Nick Clegg.  Though I think this is just a slim chance as they really are stuck with the Coalition, for now.

Labour?  Didn't see much 'One Nation Labour', did you?  They have been 'banging on' about cuts and austerity and it isn't working etc., for the last three years.  The economy has bumped along going nowhere and yet, for all of these factors which should, if their narrative is to be believed, have delivered a resounding 'kicking' for the Conservatives, it clearly didn't.  Labour gained 291 seats.  From a low base they doubled their representation but ..........  I think that the Labour message of 'we need to borrow more' and 'spend more' just doesn't resonate with the electorate.  When all is said and done, people know that the party is over and that now the bills need to be paid.  They know that continuously living on credit, just gets you deeper into trouble and stores up debt for them and their kids and grand-kids and great-grand-kids, etc..

For Labour the message seems to be, we don't buy your economic twaddle -  your numbers don't add-up, you fooled us once (three times actually but who's counting) and on the economy, we don't trust you. 

I used to say to my children, the answer is no, what was the question you were going to ask?  For Labour, the answer is always, we need to spend more tax payer money, what is the issue?'

So to the 'elephant in the room' - UKIP.  A very good night for them, both in terms of seats gained +139 and share of the vote 23%.  We know that this won't translate to a quarter of Westminster seats but this must cause the other parties to sit-up and take notice.  From what I can gather, UKIP's success was founded on the EU and, allied with that, immigration.  The latter principally from EU countries.  If UKIP are to grow, they must now lay out a fuller policy platform tackling more than just these two issues.  What are their views/policies on the economy, on crime, etc.  They may have policies on a whole range of issues but these have not been articulated.  Likewise, they need to develop the 'team'.  Nigel Farage is a powerful leader.  He brings a refreshing honesty (or so it seems) to the debate but, there really needs to be more people speaking for UKIP than just Farage.  And no, that wasn't a job application.  For me, with UKIP the overall package presents anti-libertarian views I could never support.

For David Cameron and the Conservatives, the danger of these results might just lie in complacency.  They actually weren't that bad!  OK so many good councillors and servants of the people, lost their seats and Labour gained control of 2 councils, from the Tories and the Conservatives lost control of a further 8 to 'no overall control' but it could have been a lot worse. 

The UKIP danger is there for the Tories but so is the solution in place. 

Cameron has promised a referendum on Europe.  However, only in the next parliament.  This needs to be brought forward so that either the referendum occurs during this parliament - how about on the same day as the next general election - May 2015? - or the legislation needs to be passed, in this parliament, committing to a referendum no later than May 2016.

On immigration too, the Conservatives have made in-roads but they need to tackle this, from the 'other end'.  The problem isn't really immigration.  Why do EU citizens come to the UK to work?  Because there is work available.  Why is work available?  Because timidity on welfare reform means that it still pays to not work.  I don't like the idea of further immigration restrictions and believe that the 'demand' side of the equation, is the one that should be addressed.

One way for Cameron to flex his muscles and take some of the wind out of UKIP's sails is to deal with Abu Qatada.  Simply deport him to Jordan.  Pay no heed to the ECHR, the Immigration Appeals courts - just put him on a plane and live with the consequences.  Last time I checked, SIAC was a UK agency!  Also, the ECHR doesn't have any tanks or jets that they can send to punish us.  Justify the decision by saying what all right thinking people know - enough is enough, this has dragged on far too long and the UK has been taken for a fool, but no longer.  

The final message for Cameron and co.?  It's the economy stupid!!  Why alienate natural supporters pursuing the media or marriage for homosexuals.  Focus on what the Conservatives are best at - economic management and law and order.

Oh!  and time for a reshuffle.  Ken Clarke has to go!  Replace with David Davis, would be my suggestion - think of the message that would send.