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What’s Wrong with Our UK Tax System ?

In short – it stifles incentive and enterprise, thus reducing our nation's productivity and its capacity to generate wealth..... Let me try to explain.... The Covid pandemic, Brexit, and more recently the worldwide ‘cost of living crisis’ have undoubtedly put a huge strain on many western economies since the start of the decade, and the UK is no exception.  The many billions gobbled up by pandemic costs and the UK's furlough scheme in particular were but one example of the financial challenges we faced, and the debt incurred will still have to be paid for somehow.  Raising taxes was a logical response during the first years of the pandemic in an attempt to pay down some of our mounting debt. Maintenance of ultra-low interest rates and effectively ‘printing money’ via quantitative easing was another means adopted to try and soften the immediate economic blow in the late 2010s, but unfortunately had the effect of making the economy appear more robust than it actually was.......
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Universal Pensioner Benefits: Pre-Budget Update

  Editor's note: Please see the recent update at the end of this text for analysis of the Winter Fuel reversal announcement in June 2025, and its implications for the future of universal pensioner benefits.....You may also be interested in a more recent update on the recent rumours that Reeves may introduce means testing for the State Pension itself, and other real or imaginary prospective horrors, in this November's budget....  ----------------------------- Now that the dust has well and truly settled after Reeves’ so-called ‘Halloween Nightmare’ budget in October 2024, and its consequences have fully fitered through to the economy at large, let’s take a look at what actually happened to pensioner benefits…and what we might expect to happen in future. We all know about the loss of the Winter Fuel Payment for the majority of pensioners last summer – you would have had to have been living on Mars for the last year not to. Although Starmer obviously thinks it's 'done...
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Winter Fuel – They Thought it was All Over - It isn’t

  This summer, Labour back-benchers finally managed to force Starmer to backtrack on the draconian restrictions to Winter Fuel Payments (WFP) first announced by Reeves shortly after the election i n July 2024. For that we should certainly be grateful to them. They weren’t, however, able to reverse the damage caused by this ill-considered measure completely. Instead of agreeing to re-instate the benefit for everyone and acknowledge it was all a terrible mistake, Starmer and Reeves insisted on attempting to 'save face' by applying a means test based on an income threshold of £35k p.a. This didn't cut much ice with the electorate if the polls are anything to go by, but it has set the scene for yet more pain for both the leadership and the Party…. Let’s take look at the practical implications of this move to find out why.... As we understand it, the plan now is for DWP to reinstate the £200 (£300 for over 80s) payment for all pensioners who were claiming their entitlem...
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Digital Personal ID introduction in UK – Will It Really Help Control Illegal Immigration ?

There has been much talk in the press and on social media recently about the Government’s intention to roll out electronic digital personal identification  (eID) in the UK. As yet, the fine detail of the eIDs themselves, and the process of their implementation, hasn’t been presented. Reading between the lines, I suspect the leadership are wary of imposing yat another far-reaching measure in their usual 'bull in a china shop' fashion, and are testing the water before revealing any concrete plans or timescales.  Here are some thoughts regarding the practicability and implications of such a scheme, assuming that the end result is some sort of smartphone-based personal ID product. First, let’s consider its desirability for the average UK citizen. We are told that a personal ID card will assist us in allowing quicker access to all manner of benefits and other state provisions, as well as removing the cumbersome requirements for paper documents that are needed to prove ID an...
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