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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 far more robust than it actually was...
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The Iran War: What are Trump’s Options and How Bad Could It Get ?

  Donald Trump has a problem on his hands…and the USA as a nation now has an even bigger one. Having been persuaded by his advisors and Netanyahu that an all-out attack on the Iranian regime and its military wing, the IRGC, was the best solution to the ‘Iranian problem’, Trump was clearly expecting the war to be over in a matter of days. This still seems to be his 'default' position for any campaign he starts, despite the lesson already provided by the Ukraine war and the continued attacks by all 3 of the Iranian proxies in the face of massive bombing campaigns since the October 7th HAMAS attack. However, despite the intense battering he and the Israelis have administered over a wide area of Iran in the last fortnight, and the progressive decapitation of the old leadership in targeted Israeli raids, the military in the form of the IRGC are still managing to bombard their arab neighbours with their remaining stock of missiles and drones. More importantly for the West gener...
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The Future of Modern Warfare: World War 3 and Beyond

 Editor's note:  Last summer's outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Iran sadly bore out the prediction made in the previous revision of this blog for the eternal Middle East 'powder keg'.  Some might say it was inevitable that this particular conflict would come to a head soon, given Iran's determination to get a nuclear bomb, and the Ayatollah's openly declared intention to use it to destroy the state of Israel. The speed at which it happened does seem to have taken many by surprise, though. Arguably the Iranian regime has, by its actions over the last 40 years, brought its own inevitable destruction on itself. Unfortunately it's the Iranian people who will probably bear the brunt of the suffering that arises from its death throes, which now promise to be quite protracted......  For a more detailed look at Trump's options, and the likely outcomes, check out the most recent blog. Read on for some more background to the conflict.... -------- As of 1...
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