Complete Failure of UK Leadership will Lead to Destitution

In my last post – quite some time ago – I wrote about the EU's lack of leadership which will lead to an inevitable decline of living standards.

The Tory government with the backing of the Tory Party in the UK has decided to raise taxes (“National Insurance”) by 1.25%. Where does that leave centre-right voters who believe in low taxes and small state?

Is National Insurance just for Health?

Proponents will point out that this is a rise in National Insurance which is targeted cash to health and social care. Nothing could be further from the truth. Like other taxes such as road tax, it gets shoved into a big tax bucket and then allocated at budget time. There has been no detail on how the £10bn will be spent. and even if it were exclusively spend on health and social care, this is a bad tax which disproportionately targets the young – in terms of their spending power, but also their job prospects.

The City of London has predicted that it will cost at least 160,000 jobs. If you're looking for references, google this. There are so many, I can't list them here. So how does this help anyone? Taxes rely on a healthy job market and this initiative kills that dead. In fact, Boris Johnson himself said so at the last election.

The media-anticipated “Tory rebellion” forecast by punters never occurred, and the increase passed easily in Parliament yesterday.

Who's to Blame?

Why was this punitive tax necessary? According to the government, the NHS backlog caused by “Covid” is to blame. But if we look closely, Covid didn't create a lockdown which prevented people from seeking help. It didn't close schools and universities creating the biggest mental health issue this country has ever seen and Covid did not kill very many people at all. Yes, yes, I know the headline figures, but even if you took those at face value – deaths occurring 28 days after a positive Covid test – 150,000 deaths is not that many in a population of over 65 million. That accounts for just 0.23% of the population – meaning 99.977% survived.

Yes, it's sad and terrible if you are personally affected, but policy should not made because of individual pain and suffering, but seek to benefit the majority.

So let's review this for a minute. The government, after having caused this mess in the first place, having refused to reform the NHS, having locked up young people for months on end – twice – is now forcing these same young people to cough up for the old people for whom they were locked up in the first place. Not only that, but asset-rich pensioners will be the only beneficiaries at a time when the younger generation can't buy a house until they're 40.

You couldn't make it up!

What's Next?

I predict that at the next election in 3 years, the following will be true:

• The NHS, benefitting from an extra £10bn, will hire expensive executives and management consultants rather than surgeons, oncologists and nurses and find themselves with a slightly reduced waiting list of 5-10 million people.
• The NHS will then claim that they still need the money rather than giving it to social care
• Social care will still be a basket case and will have benefitted not at all from the tax hike.
• This tax hike will not be the last. Britons will become poorer as investment and jobs dry up.
• We will be back in the 1970s where tax & spend were the order of the day.

The NHS religion is actually killing this country now. Far from being a beneficial force, it is sapping the lifeblood out of the country is it supposed to help. Go on! Clap! I dare you!

Here's another prediction. dissatisfied centre-right voters, will not forget. Coupled with impending vaccine passports, they will migrate towards the Reform UK Party as the only recognisable opposition still with a chance of reaching the crucial 6% or 7% needed to make Boris worry. At the next election, we will have a left-wing coalition between Labour and the Greens. This is inevitable. I've started making plans to move my businesses overseas and live somewhere where the government is not intent on stealing every cent I have.

Less greed is good when it comes to governments and individuals. I don't have any problem paying tax, but I think I can easily find a country that will appreciate the economic activity I can bring to it. The UK government obviously doesn't care.