Cost of Government Day: Monday 23 July
The TPA has extended the concept of Tax Freedom Day, long championed by the Adam Smith Institute and now an established part of the political calendar (in 2007 it fell on 1 June) and can now provide an estimate of the Cost of Government Day. This is the date in the calendar year on which the average person has earned enough gross income to pay off his or her share of government spending and regulation.
The result for 2007 is as follows:
- The average person must work for 204 days of the year to pay off his or her share of government spending and regulation.
- The Cost of Government Day in 2007 is 23 July.
Ed Balls and Nursery provision
So now he tells us. Now he tries to repent. Well, thanks for nothing, chum. After 10 years of suffocating legislation, the Labour Secretary for Children and Schools, Mr Edward Balls, appears to have woken up to what his government has done.
After 10 years of elf and safety lunacy, Balls has plaintively called for children to be allowed to take a few risks: play conkers, have a snowball fight, climb a tree, get a few scabs back on their knees. Bring back the joys of childhood, says the blithering Balls, as if Labour had nothing to do with the creation of our grossly over-regulated society and compensation culture.
ASBOS 'R Us
In Nanny's world councils have been given, or shall we say believe that they have been given, a hell of a lot of power over us.
Now, as we all know, power can corrupt; it would seem that one of Nanny's "respected" local councils has found that to its cost.
Proud to be British
Most days, the newspapers report the name of a soldier who has been killed, a soldier like the squaddie from Holyhead.
What the news does not show, and what the newspapers rarely describe, is the soldiers who are injured. Amputees with burnt faces are not photogenic. Soldiers with brain injuries, physical or mental, act strangely.
It is all most unpalatable for the general public. Best ignored.
Still not getting it...
You might have noticed that your humble Devil did not crow over the Ealing and Sedgefield by-election results. There were several reasons for this; first, NuLabour were always going to hold Sedgefield. Let's face it, had Blair ever thought that the seat was in doubt he would have put himself into a nice safe seat; it's a trifle difficult to be Prime Minister when you haven't even been elected as an MP.
Paying for Labour's next General Election win
On a positive note, let's examine the options to funding Labour's next General Election campaign. How much money needs to be raised?
‘Cash for honours’: the inquiries continue
Labour’s top fundraisers and donors may have been saved from chokey by the Crown Prosecution Service last week, but they still have to run the gauntlet of the House of Commons’ Public Affairs Committee.
First and second class kids
The story of schoolchildren being trained to work in a call centre will trigger a dumbing-down furore, but systemic failures in education are the real problem.
Ditch Cameron for Oddball Fascist, say Tory Rebels
SENIOR Tory MPs are calling for David Cameron to be replaced with another vote-losing weirdo from the party's extreme right wing.
Frustrated with the relatively normal behaviour of the Conservative Party over the last 18 months, rebel backbenchers are plotting to replace Cameron with a leader who can recapture the child-scaring days of the late 1990s.
One rebel Tory MP said: "Norman Tebbit just sits at home all day writing psychotic, foul-mouthed letters to the BBC. It's such a waste."
Fare games
British Rail was criticised for raising ticket prices rather than investing in improvements - but the quasi-privatised railway is doing just that.
Raining on Gordon's parade
The government can't do anything about the weather, but it can get the blame for it. So Prime Minister Brown is wise to take the floods seriously.
Was the
With the flooding story continuing to dominate the news the Guardian has postponed publication of its ICM survey for July which was carried out over the weekend in the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s by elections. So we don’t know the precise figures but Michael Crick on Newsnight last night suggested it was in the same region as the last ICM poll a week and a half ago which had Labour 7% ahead.
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