A little chart

Following that long rant, I knocked up a bit of a chart. Stolen shamelessly from the Adam Smith Institute (to whom all cudos must go) I've coloured it in a little, to make my point.

In red are labour govenements, in blue are conservative ones. Now, boundary years are a bit iffy, because...well...if govenment changes midyear, what colour is the year?

What this chart shows is the say of the year when you stop paying all your earnings to the taxman, and start keeping it yourself.

What does it show? It shows me that, overall, with the exception of Marget Thatcher the conservatives tend to take less money off you. And even in her case....well, its debateable now, 25 years later, if she did the right thing.

Labour, on the other hand, don't seem to do so well.

Not paying tax

As asked, here is MY ways of getting past Mr Brown's many tax rises. This isn't a complete list, but I'm sure you'll get the general idea...

First, we must start with the Demon - Drink!

Being a Scotsman and a Prudent, Hard Worker - no, really. Go listen to his speaches. He maintained the tax and further increased it on alcohol, beer, wine and spirits. Despite this not being very scottish. See here.

Second, travel. Our Mr Brown, he's not very supportive of travel. You probably heard about the increases in flight taxes last budget - and how they would effect "The average family" more then they would business people or the rich. Which is true - £80 pounds more for a family holiday will hurt, when you consider that the flights are pennies. The aircraft will still fly - half empty or not - so why not flog empty tickets off at the last minute?

But no, it gets worse. He increased the fuel duty for road vehicles in 2004. He even increased the tax on red - aka farming - desiel. Yep, lets tax the farmer for not doing things the old fashioned, hardworking way - by hand. Its not like agriculture isn't dying in the UK.

Lets make the farmer pay more to cart his onions to market. Great idea.

This of course, isn't very scottish, because right now he's not in scotland. Maybe he should travel back to his constituancy, and becauses he's so anti-travel, STAY THERE.

But the rest of us had better not travel. Or buy anything made more than walking distance away - because he keeps taxing.

Thirdly....being careful.

A Prudent man takes insurance out on his car, house, perhaps his job and his health. You've all seen the adverts. Well, this Prudent Mr Brown increased the tax on this prudent insurance. In 1997 and 1999. Talk about being Mr Prudent.

And while we're on the subject, I'm not even going to touch the raid on pensions - possibly up to 100 BILLION POUNDS of prudence...taken. To balence his books, and buy another election. Note to self: don't invest in a pension. Invest elsewhere, just as much, and treat it as a pension. Harder for him to get.

Forth...and last for today.

Once upon a time, if you (or a company) invested well, made your profits and paid your taxes, you could use reinvestment relief. It allowed you to plow your profits back into the economy, making you more money and giving to the country more jobs. It helped keep investiment in the UK, going around in a virtuous cycle.

In 1998, it was...well, abolished. So you might as well just not bother reinvesting your hard work in the UK. You'd be taxed on it like everything else.

Fifth - ok, I said there was only four. I lied.

Fifth, don't be well off - or even average. Mr Brown has been very clever, increasing his tax grabs with a very crafty dodge. Every person in the UK is allowed to earn so much money a year which will never be taxed. This is your allowence (yes, more complex names for it exist. Don't go there.)

In the past, every year it was increased in line with inflation - so that the value always remained the same, year on year. Mr Brown stopped this.

Inflation is the natural tendancy of prices to increase - just like your (grand)parents told you. Things were cheaper in the past. One pound will buy less, every year. While the reverse can happen...its a really, really BAD thing.

What does this mean? Every year, as the hard working peasants and the peons earned that little bit extra to feather their nests more of their earnings would be taxed. The numbers would always look the same - I said it was crafty, didn't I? - but the percentage of tax they paid would always increase.

The hard worker could watch his earning grow in line with inflation - and be able to buy less, and less and even less.
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Seem to have lost the "saving money" part . But if a tax change allowed you to save money, wouldn't it be pointless?

How do you separate a pirate from his treasure?

In the current Exalted game, in Canada, we have a very mixed party group. We have an evangelical preacher, who converts the unfaithful. We've got a horse nomad, more well read then Plato and probably better with a lance. Then there's me, a healer looking for a cause.

A very quiet healer, who didn't put himself forwards, trying to understand how the game works. Seeking the real motivations of the players, the meaning of the rules...to the point where the GM was worried I was too quiet. And possibly not enjoying the game.

In the other corner we have Xmond, the pirate. Though out the time we've played, there has been constant pilfering, thieving and downright grief caused by these wilful depredations. Powerful artefacts taken from important people - people who we need, like the person who gave us our boat. (Well, ship. First age artefact capable of levelling a large village. Boat.)

This constant though mostly good natured) plundering aggravates sometimes, as it draws much attention, hinders other goals and burns time on a non-essential point, that leaves the rest if the group twiddling their thumbs. So I decided to do something about it.

But how do you separate a pirate from his treasure?

Do you attack? Well, he's a pirate. With a pirate crew. Which would just take Forever to chew my way though. And besides, he's got a semi-immortal parrot that can drag a man into the air and drop him from a height.

Yes, semi-immortal. Don't ask.

We could...call the city watch onto him. But then they'd find out he's exalted. AKA Anathema - about as popular as an arsonist at a fire-fighters convention. Hunted to the death for the last thousand years or so.

And if he's exalted, what about his friends? The Wild Hunt is distracted as of late, but its still not to make big waves...

I could steal it back, and return it to its rightful owners. But while I am of the night caste (a thing which raises no few eyebrows. A healer who can disappear at a whim...) I couldn't steal a candy from a baby. Certainly not from a skilled pirate.

Perhaps we could ask him for them? The spoils collected over weeks of effort, from a dozen places? Acquired against the will of the party, assorted owners and the DMs best efforts.

Unlike the weapons of a grammerton cleric - or his pants - asking for them is not the way to go.

Or...or...I'm a healer. And he's a pirate. Hmmm.

So I wait, till we run into another circle (aka party) of Exalted. Meet "Crow the Boy", another thief after Xmond heart. A little ten year old girl, who would steal your heart, wallet and socks before you even noticed she wasn't a boy, as her name proclaimed.

And alas, suffering from a plague we had encountered before. Not only her, but most of the children of the gutter inhabiting the city of Nexus.

So imagine the scene, after Xmond spent the day with her, robbing hard the richest merchants they could fined. Retiring after a hard days looting to the inn belonging to Opulent Dragon, Crow's guardian and barmaid.

Think, if you can, of the bewilderment and puzzlement of Xmond's player, as the conversation begins.

Me: Its so wasteful, and tragic.
Xmond: Huh?
Me:
Xmond: What??
Me: And you've shown her such remarkable kindness. Such a waste.
Xmond: How? When?
Me: Why, Crow of course. You know she's dying...

As the room goes silent, both the other players and our imaginary bar room. Crow the boy breaks into tears, hiding in Opulent Dragon's petticoat, bawling her eyes out. Opulent Dragon glaring at all, me most of all.

Onwards, the snowball that starts an avalanche falls.

...of course its treatable, but pointless to try. Pointless? Why, yes of course - she'd be re-infected by the gutter children, for whom she steals for to buy food and clothing.

I suppose I could cure them all, but I couldn't possibly. Why...the cost of course. My herbs and supplies would barely heal one, yet alone the dozens and hundreds of the city.

If only my little funds hadn't been stolen days ago...what, Xmond, you have funds suitable to the task? To save hundreds of children from a slow, lingering death wracked with pain and terror?

So the best way to separate a pirate from his treasure is...to let him give it to you.

Canadian Easter

As asked, a few comments about the Canadian celebration of Easter.

To begin with, do not , under any circumstances, think that the observance has anything to do with religion of faith. The devout appear to run shoulders with the apostates in this. They all get the day off work! Well, days :D

There is usually a family meal, which is considered Important. Even for anti-social, hiding from the light roleplayers.

While there is the same obsession with chocolate eggs - though less Easter bunnies, and no soul cake duck. No, the obsession is Easter baskets, some as big as small children stuffed with candies and goodies. Not just for children though - you can get them for almost anything, from cute children's packs to nascar racing monsters.

Couldn't find my chocolate d20's though.

Easter - oh, the sunshine, it burns, it burns.

Four days off work, a weekend and two bank holidays.

And I'm bored already.

Still, things to talk about.

The garden....if I owned this place, rather then rent it, I would shoot the previous occupiers as wasteful and of little vision.

Where to start....on one side we have a little stream running. If it lasts all summer or not, I don't know. But right now its going to waste! Ten minutes work with a shovel and you could have a free, natural water supply for the garden. All you need to do is dig bit of a hole to stick a bucket...

Still, we have the seeds all planted. The sweetcorn is germinating already, only 2 days later...planting onions tonight!

And last night, I enjoyed one of my favourite five physical pleasures.

Mmmm.....a dark room.....some food.....and a hot, burning fire to warm my feet. (What did you think it was?!?)

I truly think we've lost some the simplest pleasures in life as a people. We've strived for central heating, electrical gadgets and gizmos. When all you really need to warm you is this...