Taxing The Granny Annex?

 Politics  No Responses »
Jun 022012
 

Apparently the government has announced plans to stop charging council tax for those who live in so-called “granny annexes”. The opposition has quite rightly pointed out that this is an interesting position to take as there has long been a council tax exemption for those living in granny annexes who are over 65, or who are impaired in various other ways.

For those not familiar with granny annexes – and this may come as a surprise to many Tories, but not everyone is familiar with the concept – if you have a large enough house, it is possible to set aside part of it as a separate dwelling. Usually to give some member of the family some level of independent living – traditionally used for a live-in grandparent. Thus the term “granny annex”.

It may come as a bit of a surprise to many Tories, but most ordinary hard-working families live in homes where space is at a premium. Indeed having the spare space to create an annex could be a definition of “wealthy”. Or in other words, Tories have come up with a nifty way of giving a tax cut to the wealthy whilst trying (and failing) to sound like they are helping ordinary people.

Or to put it another way, why are we giving council tax exceptions to grannies and disabled people? If someone over the age of 65 lives in their own flat they have to pay council tax, but if they live in an annex in their family’s home, they don’t. I’m not against the idea that those who are somewhat constrained in their income should get some sort of discount on their council tax, but getting a discount because you have rich relatives?

Parliament: The House Of Unruly Schoolkids

 Politics  No Responses »
May 232012
 

I am sure that pretty much all of us are familiar with what happens in school when the teacher leaves the room on a Friday afternoon and a whole class full of rebellious children start kicking up fuss. Shouting, throwing insults around, and generally making a lot of unnecessary noise.

When watching “PM Questions” at lunchtime today, it occurred to me (and probably not for the first time) that our politicians in parliament act pretty much like a bunch of unruly school kids. Let us look at some of the examples of boorish behaviour :-

  1. Calling the leader of the opposition an “idiot” (for which David Cameron was spanked for and forced to retract).
  2. Growling with approval during speeches.
  3. Shouting dissent during speeches.

This may be the sort of behaviour expected during an Oxbridge debate, but most of us have not been unfortunate to take part in such a thing, and this sort of behaviour of our representatives is disgusting.

It has been suggested before that PMQs needs reform, but with no obvious change to the behaviour seen. Perhaps those MPs who behave this way should be made aware that most of us are only aware of how they behave from their behaviour at the weekly PMQs ?

Panic! Europe Prepares Contingency Plans For Greece Leaving The Euro

 General, Media, Politics  No Responses »
May 232012
 

There are reports that share prices in world markets fell dramatically on the announcement that Europe has asked countries to prepare contingency plans in the event of Greece dropping the Euro. Which probably shows that there are some pretty dumb share dealers around.

That is not to say there are not valid concerns about the possibility of Greece reverting to the old drachma but that is hardly news – I knew about the chances of that happening this morning well before the announcement. Perhaps some intellectually-challenged people believe that preparing contingency plans increases the risk of something happening.

Of course preparing contingency plans does not increase the risk of anything (except possibly a shortage of paper). An event will occur with or without a contingency plan which is after all a way of preparing for an event if it occurs.

In fact it is probable that such contingency plans already exist for Greece leaving … or indeed any other country. In fact they bloody well should do – those whose job it is to draw up contingency plans would be grossly irresponsible if they have not drawn up plans by now. To draw a parallel with the computing world, the person who waits until their disk drives all start making strange and worrying sounds before starting to perform backups is doing so far too late.

 

The Political Grand Prix

 General, Politics  No Responses »
Apr 222012
 

Today’s Grand Prix in Bahrain is mired in controversy because of the race going ahead when the political protesters want it cancelled. Those associated with Formula 1 are claiming that the race should go ahead because it is totally separate from the political issues in Bahrain.

That is one point of view. Although it is more in the nature of wishful thinking – perfectly understandable as the Formula 1 organisers who undertook to race in Bahrain are hardly responsible for what is happening there on the political scene.

The protesters claim that the race going ahead legitimises the Bahrain regime by adding international credibility.

That is another point of view with rather more weight to it.

But it could well be wrong – it may well be that having the race go ahead brings more attention to the political instability in Bahrain. Most normal people may well not have been aware of the political trouble in Bahrain; at least not recently. By having the race go ahead, the amount of coverage of the political issues has gone up through the roof. Whilst cancelling the race would have increased the coverage slightly, it is likely that it would have resulted in nowhere near as much coverage as we are seeing.

Knowing The Lord’s Prayer

 Politics, Religion  No Responses »
Apr 032012
 

A few days ago now, a report came out indicating that today only 50% of children know the Lord’s Prayer off by heart whereas in 1972 the rate was 90%. Shock horror!

Before worrying about whether this matters or not, does this survey actually say what we think it does ? In 1972, there was a far greater expectation for children to memorise things and that is less so now. Ignoring whether this is good or bad, it may well be that children in 1972 would claim to know the Lord’s Prayer when they didn’t quite. And children today are perhaps less likely to exaggerate their knowledge.

As an example (although I’m long past the age where I can claim to be a child), I’m not likely to claim I know the Lord’s Prayer off by heart, but if I find myself in the sort of surroundings where the Lord’s Prayer is solemnly chanted, the words are likely to come back to me.

And does it matter ?

Well, a child who goes to church to plead with their god is going to pick it up pretty quickly anyway (at least if it’s a christian church of the persuasion that believes in the Lord’s Prayer), so there is no worry about that point.

As to establishing the cultural tradition of the UK, it seems to me that knowing the Lord’s Prayer is less important than knowing Beowulf or Gray’s Elegy yet how many people know either off by heart ? Or have even read it ? Being aware of (and having read) all three is much more important than having memorised any.

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