It Only Takes a Spark

#Britain #justice #politics #taxpayer #spendingwaste

The Path to Anarchy

The more one digs into the various, seemingly unrelated issues facing the British public today, the more obvious an elitist-driven agenda is emerging. Duping the masses into a ‘better’ future whilst systematically abusing their taxes and manoeuvring the country to a place which will be hard to come back from, simply will not work no matter how much wool is pulled over the public’s proverbial eyes. And the more the populus recognises the truth of how they are being treated, the closer to a civil rebellion and outright anarchy we will get.

And then it only takes a spark.

Consider:

VIP Lane inflated contracts of ￡925m reveal a wider abuse of taxpayer monies and a growing elitist movement to the detriment of the public majority

Fast-track contracts handed out to Tory connections were 80% more expensive than other suppliers (Good Law Project, 2023). Worse, a quarter of the money awarded through the VIP Lane was wasted on equipment that couldn’t be used; meaning more than ￡1 billion worth of PPE was not fit for purpose. One example is Meller Designs Ltd, a fashion company owned by David Meller, a longstanding Tory donor, who has given more than ￡68,000 to the party and supported Michael Gove’s leadership campaign in 2016.

After contacting both Lord Bethell and the office of Michael Gove, his firm, Meller Designs, bagged six contracts to make medical equipment worth ￡163m. Of the six contracts, three were paid above the odds, with the contracts awarded at between 1.2 and 2.2 times the average unit price. The average price for medical gowns was ￡5.87. But the gowns bought from Meller Designs Ltd – a fashion company run by a Tory donor until January 2021 – cost ￡12.64. And ￡8.46m worth of the equipment supplied by Meller Designs was unsuitable for use in an NHS setting.

The company made over ￡13.2m in post-tax profits for the period ending December 2020, whereas the year before it cleared just ￡143,000 – an increase of around 9000%.

In April 2020, Andrew Mills – an adviser to the Government’s Board of Trade under Liz Truss – brokered a deal for Ayanda Capital to supply masks. This investment firm had no experience in supplying medical equipment, but snagged a contract worth over ￡252m. And 50 million masks from Ayanda Capital were deemed unusable in an NHS setting, wasting more than ￡145m.

The list goes on.

￡99 billion of spending waste

This includes ￡1.7m on painting the Prime Minister’s planes; ￡56 million in contracts awarded to big ‘consulting’ firms without tender; ￡120 million on Festival of Brexit; ￡3 billion in government use of temporary agency staff in civil service; over ￡700,000 in golden goodbye for Truss cabinet; ￡50 million on a new helicopter for the PM to make short trips; ￡600 million given to high-earning business executives for tax-payer funded MBA courses; ￡466 million on Brexit import inspection sites that were never used; ￡6,000 for Rishi Sunak to take a helicopter flight on a trip that would have taken one hour by train; ￡314 million on a Green Homes Deal that failed to deliver; ￡100 million on land for cancelled leg of HS2 sold at a loss, and a further ￡2.3 billion on cancelled bits of HS2.

The list goes on.

￡136 billion of wasted government spending on paying excess interest to commercial banks on money gifted to them by the government using the QE (quantitative easing) process.

The key issue to understand here is that when the government made almost ￡900 billion of new money using the QE process that got spent into the economy via our commercial banks, like Lloyds, Barclays and Santander. What happened as a result was that these banks ended up with over ￡900 billion supposedly on deposit account with the Bank of England. They are being paid Bank of England base interest rate on these deposits.

This is absurd. This interest need not be paid. There is no law requiring it. Pre-2008 nothing at all was paid on these balances. Even paying a token 0.1% on total balances over ￡100bn would be more than enough to fulfil the policy goal for making payments. And that would save ￡136 billion.?(Murphy, 2022)

Extremely overpaid CEOs and key directors of public projects (think HS2), especially with continuous failure to produce positive results

In 2022 Mark Thurston, as CEO of High Speed Two Ltd under the Department for Transport, earned ￡640,000. His responsibilities included delivering the HS2 program to safety, cost, time and quality standards to transform Britain's capacity, connectivity, trains, passenger experiences and travel sustainability while driving growth and regeneration. His fellow directors, Christopher Rayner and Ruth Todd, as Delivery Director and Chief Commercial Officer respectively, over ￡260,000 each, along with six further key directors who each were paid between ￡230,000 and ￡250,000 each.

So, over ￡2.6m of tax-payer monies was paid in salary packages to just nine board directors. And HS2 has summarily failed to deliver on all targets. Even experienced board directors, according to pay scale, would have salaries between ￡80,000 and ￡100,000. No-one would argue with bonuses being paid, even of 100%, for successfully delivering on budget, or on time, or both. These nine people could still have earned their significant income for ensuring tax-payer money was spent efficiently and effectively. But being paid such exorbitant money for delivering abject failure is shameful.

And they are a mere nine people out of over six hundred who were paid in excess of ￡100,000 each in 2022. Where is the oversight, the transparency, the emphasis on value-add for the tax-payer? Are such appointments simply fuel for the old boys’ network?

We live in a country today that has less true equality, less policing, more focus on the few at the expense of the many; with greater immigration issues, a NHS strained beyond limit, with increasing cost of living and council tax, even when the major utility and energy companies are declaring record profits. We cannot even look after our ex-force’s personnel properly, or pay our nurses, teachers, and such what they deserve. And our prisons are overcrowded, with too few prison officers who each earn far less than they should too, and have the shortest training of any prison system in Europe, possibly the world. And for that, our reoffending rates are among the highest in the world. But remember, prison is big business.

Highest net immigration figures BUT deduct the genuine – such as paying university students or people recruited into NHS, and so on

It is estimated that the net migration figures for 2022 were 745,000 people. However, whilst this is a significant number of net new people in the UK, not all are illegal migrants. A great many, for example, are fee-paying students attending our universities; or coming to work in our NHS, and so on, and all pay their tax and National Insurance. To fill much needed specialist jobs, such people are an asset.

The estimated number of illegal migrants is circa 50,000, although the true number may indeed be higher. The current broken asylum system costs the UK around ￡3 billion a year and rising and around ￡6 million a day on hotel bills. 87% of these illegal migrants are male, and 75% of the total number are aged between 18 and 39 years. So, it is predominantly younger males without families and children. If fleeing persecution in their homeland, why are they homing in on UK rather than staying in the nearest safe country to theirs? Is it motivated by benefits and NHS?

More councils are wasting taxpayer money, going bankrupt and putting the burden of their failures on their taxpayers through increases in Council Tax, over and above the proposed 5%.

This is in itself shameful but with nepotism, wasteful spending, personal spending, procurement abuse, and so on, and their own high salary packages, it is simply unacceptable. Some quick facts?(McGoldrick, 2023):

·???????? Westminster had the lowest council tax relative to house price out of all local authorities in Great Britain, with band D residents paying just 0.1%.

·???????? West Devon, which has the lowest median salary, charges the highest council tax relative to salary at 10.85%.

·???????? The 20 lowest earning districts in the UK all charged over 8% of the average salary in council tax.

·???????? The Managing Director of Guildford Council in 2021-22 year was paid over ￡607,000, and in Sunderland, the Executive Director of Neighbourhoods received over ￡573,000. Nineteen key executives of councils throughout Britain were paid in excess of ￡250,000.

·???????? 8 out of 10 of the local authorities with the most employees receiving remuneration in excess of ￡100,000 were in London.

Nottingham City Council declared themselves bankrupt in November 2023. Their Chief Executive, Mel Barrett, still took ￡182,510 in remuneration. Birmingham City Council declared themselves bankrupt in August 2023. Their Chief Executive, Deborah Cadman, took ￡250,000 in salary. Woking Borough Council declared themselves bankrupt in June 2023. Their then Chief Executive, Julie Fisher, took around ￡190,000 in remuneration.

The list goes on. The vast number of extremely highly paid public servants who deliver nothing short of failure is simply shocking. Indeed, it is more than just shocking; it is an absolute selfish abuse of position at the expense of the tax-payer they are supposedly employed to serve.

An increase in [funding for] policing but a greater absence of police on our streets, with sentencing under one year being dropped altogether where possible is not in the public best interest.

The government reports that overall funding for policing has increased year on year for the last eight years, and will have increased by up to 16.9% in real terms.

Since 2010, at least 663 police stations in England, Wales and Scotland have closed.

The friendly front-line beat cop present in every high street is now a nostalgic thing of the past. And the public is told this is progress. Mutton dressed up as lamb comes to mind.

This is not progress.

Move to a cashless society.

The UK is at risk of 'sleepwalking into a cashless society' before it is ready. Businesses small and large across the UK have discriminated on people that use cash to pay for goods. Not everyone wants a digital trail and others simply cannot pay by card. Against a backdrop of high streets pushing cashless payments and an imminent doubling of the contactless card payment limit, the vast majority of Brits want to retain cash as a payment option, according to a recent survey. Critically, there are also those for whom cash is not a choice, but an essential. From individuals with a poor credit history to the unemployed and homeless, there are many for whom opening and managing bank accounts is either a serious challenge or an absolute impossibility. Finally, cash also offers a more personal way of transacting, whether putting banknotes in a birthday card or handing them over to someone who has performed a valuable service.

The latest in high street closures comes in the form of bank branches and building societies shutting down, with more than 5,350 branches closed (or planned to close) since the start of 2015. A few key facts:

1.??? Cybercrimes grew by 40% in Britain in 2021

2.??? There was a 23.5% increase in social media hacking in the UK last year

3.??? The UK has the highest cybercrime density in the world

4.??? Companies take an average of 277 days to identify and respond to a cyberattack

Bank branches have a positive impact on local economies, high streets and small businesses, including being important for customer services and SME lending. Cash insures against cyber risks and other network failures.

Despite the importance of keeping cash as a payment option, society is being pushed toward a cashless society. Worse, it is being denied a customer service focused banking and financial sector with huge numbers of branch closures, fewer major utility, energy or banking companies having a high street presence, and a growing trend to have customers use self-service tills in shops and supermarkets. We are being driven headlong into a digital only world, asleep to the implications.

Imagine for one moment that your phone signal drops out completely. Imagine too that you go to use your bank or credit card online, in a shop or at an ATM but it will not work, is cancelled or simply retained. Both of these can happen already and in a cashless world, you are completely screwed. This is the world we are heading toward. Privacy is no longer secure, nor is access to your money or vital services.

That is the plain, hard facts of it today.

1984 – Big Brother is watching you; and how a cashless society controls the masses, especially the newer generations sold on convenience and progress.

A cashless society has one obvious benefit to those in control. You are at their mercy. They do not serve you, no matter how sweet their marketing may seem.

There is nothing wrong, in principle, with a capitalist society. Striving for a better life can motivate people but surely it should be true value add for those that choose it, not something that actually adds value to a higher authority at the individual’s expense. Core needs, such as housing, health, energy, public transport and so on simply must be managed transparently for the benefit of all, and provide the best possible value as a fundamental right for all British citizens. Having a free market over and above these basic services is fine. However, every business that competes to generate UK revenue, be it a small local company or an international mega-conglomerate, must pay their fair share of taxes and not use loopholes or blatant avoidance strategies to minimise any tax liability to as close to zero as they can get.

I am reminded of Norman Wisdom, a truly funny entertainer. He lived for much of his adult life on the Isle of Man, a renowned tax haven. What few may realise however is that Norman voluntarily paid UK income tax on his earnings, every year for his entire life. He earned his money in the UK, mostly, and wanted to contribute; so, he did. Whilst I do not suppose any major international chain would take the same philosophical stance, they nevertheless ought to contribute equally in financial terms. If you earn your turnover here, good for you for running a successful business, but pay your way openly and properly. If that deters the bigger organisations from staying here, so be it. Their loss becomes an opportunity to gain from the gap. But any business with an ounce of sense will accept they can no longer hide their gains and must pay their way, because it is better to have some profit for their efforts rather than zero. What this actually does is deny greed as a strategy.

But it isn’t just about money. It is more than that. It is about freedom of choice to live knowing your taxes are being used efficiently and properly for your benefit, above and beyond anyone else. Those that pay their way, the general public, no matter what end of the scale you are on financially, must be treated as one living entity, whose benefit everything is done for, transparently and honestly.

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Strategy

·???????? Demand for transparency in all areas of public spending and confiscation of ‘unearned’ monies. Going forward appointed key people to a public office must be paid basic pay-scale salaries but with a bonus structure that acts as an incentive for producing positive results, on target and on time. Then and only then can high rates of pay package be justified as earned.

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·???????? Demand for an end to nepotism and VIP Lane style contracts, in all areas of public spending. There must be a completely transparent process that welcomes any and all to tender (sealed bids that are independently secured until a public ‘reveal’ to identify the winner(s).

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·???????? Demand for complete [fiscal] transparency with each and every council in Britain, to include proof within procurement of ‘best deal’ practices, salary & benefits at national average levels, priority spending list and ensuring no overpaying for services or product through private contracts or such. The days of paying over ￡900 for a ￡300 (retail cost) securable four-drawer filing cabinet, and paying for delivery after more than two weeks from a private company no-one has ever heard of, instead of dealing with a major national brand such as Staples, who would provide a government discount on standard retail AND deliver free next day. Emphasis must be on value for money for and total transparency on behalf of the taxpayer at all times.

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·???????? A national referendum on priority of public spending – i.e. NHS before foreign aid. British aid to India is set to jump by 70 per cent, despite repeated pledges from ministers to axe it. Figures buried in the Foreign Office's annual report show that aid to the fast-growing economy will rise from ￡33.4 million last year to ￡57 million next year in spite of growing pressure on the public finances.

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India spent over $74 million last year on its moon mission. And not only did we send them aid, that aid amount is increasing. This is just one example. Britain gave over ￡110 million to Nigeria in 2022. I wonder if that was following an email request for help. In 2021, Britain gave more than ￡48 million in aid to China!

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It is important for us to support our fellow humans wherever in the world they are, when an urgent situation arises. Giving aid for political or commercial reasons, with little transparency over the entire process, must be critically monitored and completely transparent, or it must stop.

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·???????? Demand for immediate turnaround of all illegal immigrants, with fast and efficient processing for the few in genuine need – the concept of Rwanda, or similar, is not out of the question here. The question is would it be better than where they are escaping from? Note the emphasis is on illegal immigrants. Continuing to pay over ￡6 million a day in accommodation costs is ridiculous.

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·???????? For genuine immigrants, paying their way through fees or income taxes for example, there should be a true and genuine welcome BUT integration must mean becoming part of the British culture, not insisting on their own closed world. Everyone has the right to choose their beliefs, but not to impose them on others. If someone genuinely chooses Britain to be their new home, being British is a given. Chinatown is as much an attraction as it is a community; but creating closed cultural communities that are not British to all intents and purposes should cease.

o?? This must include religious demands, such as Shariah law for UK and any hate-based agenda. Religious freedom is still a core principle, but on the basis that everyone is free to choose their own path and not have one path imposed on them regardless.

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·???????? Demand for an end to the quagmire of taxes, open and surreptitious; a single flat rate tax to all, above an annual allowance as now, of say 30%. No VAT, council tax, National Insurance, and so on. A single, transparent tax on all earnings. The more you earn, the more you pay but everyone uses the same flat rate. This principal must also be applied to all corporate revenues generated within UK, although perhaps at a slightly lower tax rate for very high turnover businesses, even where the parent company resides overseas (think Starbucks, Amazon, Facebook, and so on).

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·???????? A demand for transparency over, and possible removal or reduction in, taxation of energy, fuel, tobacco, alcohol, and any other relevant products. A more detailed example is the proposal being implemented to ban smoking, which does not actually save taxpayer money despite the hype, because the burden on the NHS is one-third of the tax revenue generated BUT encouraging less use long-term for genuine health reasons (advisory not imposed) through an element of special taxation could be considered.

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·???????? Cash is king. It must stay and everywhere must accept it as a payment option. The same goes for personal data privacy.

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·???????? Customer service above and beyond shareholder profits; in other words, profits must not be at the expense of customer service and value for money.

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·???????? NHS for British citizens or tax-paying foreign nationals. Everyone else pays.

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·???????? Police stations back in every town, with an open-door and street walking policy.

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·???????? Ex-forces personnel are given priority mental health support, job guarantees, and housing.

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·???????? Eco-Pod housing programmes to end homelessness.

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·???????? Utilities and services (public transport, such as trains and buses, returned to transparent public control and on a non-profit basis to maximise value for money to consumer). UK banks and utility providers to have UK customer support, with all calls answered within five rings; or return to the high street.