Max Power

I find this all quite worrying. It's obvious that the EU and US do not want a military confrontation with Russia but Putin seems aware of this and is willing to risk the consequences. As I mentioned earleir, which former Soviet states are next? It does seem however that the US has sent a token force on excercises to the Baltic States. I feel that this has the potential to either escalate beyond control or see Putin thrown out. Whatever, Putin is showing himself to be very much a Stalinist. It's actually quite scary to try and see things through the eyes of people with opposing views, the Russian speakers of the Ukraine see the EU as a threat to them doing business with the Russians. They feel they will lose out to EU competition and unable to trade in Europe causing mass unemployment. Even in Russia there are many people who preferred the Soviet regime to what they have now, even relatively young people!

This has some of the ingredients of the build up to WW2! A state led by a visionary dictator persecutes minorities, annexes part of a neighbouring country to protect their own ethnic group, which leads to the collapse of that countries government. They then move in to take the whole country into their 'protection'. If the Ukraine is divided on the grounds of Putin's demands, it will be landlocked! What next, more territorial demands? Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Moldova..... It's plain to see that Putin longs for the days of the old Soviet Union, it looks like he may get it all back?

He is out now though.

Yes, it would seem that they are! Our government are incapable of standing up to anyone with a modicum of clout or substance. They are mainly all weaklings running scared of their own shadows, and I'm not just talking about our elected representatives! It is much easier to impose taxes on those who can not do anything about it!

Perhaps we should be paying an "Earthquake and Volcano Management Charge" also? I now realise what Bell meant about more pain to come, he wasn't talking about spending cuts or tax hikes for the wealthy, he was talking about bleeding the ordinary worker, the elderly, the poor and disadvantaged to death!

When will they get the message that the fairest way is to increase income tax rates?

It is not an either-or. There are many options in-between. For example - if every household were to pay an average of only £18 extra per week that would bring in £33 million. £2.60 per day. Averaged. It would not break the economy. I wonder how much a 2% income tax increase would bring in ? Seems like a good number. How is a person on a state pension going to pay £18 a week out of less than £200,some pensioners on Wednesday are down to their last few coppers after paying for their rent and rates, gas, electric, food, there is not much left for any personal items, people have to section their pension each week and put money away for when the bills come in like gas and electric, why don't those on this £600 a week pay three times that amount, that should sort it. That is why an income tax rise is the fairest option.

It is not an either-or. There are many options in-between. For example - if every household were to pay an average of only £18 extra per week that would bring in £33 million. £2.60 per day. Averaged. It would not break the economy. I wonder how much a 2% income tax increase would bring in ? Seems like a good number. I for one would object to an extra £18 tax per week just to keep an oversized public sector in situ. Did the scale of govt here bother you when it was being funded by the over generous UK tax payer ? It did bother me, I always thought that there were areas in which the government should not have been involved such as buses, railways etc and that privatisation should have been progressed long ago. We do need a CS and there are people doing a great job but there are definitely a lot of overpaid workers. Things such as catering, vehicle repairs, general maintenance, in fact anything which does not affect public security should be privatised and outsourced. This would remove the pension liability and reduce waste.

It is not an either-or. There are many options in-between. For example - if every household were to pay an average of only £18 extra per week that would bring in £33 million. £2.60 per day. Averaged. It would not break the economy. I wonder how much a 2% income tax increase would bring in ? Seems like a good number. I for one would object to an extra £18 tax per week just to keep an oversized public sector in situ. Yes, agreed and Sultan has said the same thing so that is a priority. I would love to see the reasoning behind what they are doing with their stealth taxes, they are making me very angry with their fuck the lower paid attitude! I am lucky enough not to be badly affected by their current thinking but I've never been an "I'm all right Jack" sort of person!

I too have no problem with not paying and it's purely on principle at the moment. When they begin increasing it and pensioners, the sick and low paid can not afford it I may do more than not pay it! If our government haven't the balls to pick on someone their own size then maybe they need to be taught a lesson. To say that nobody on here will stand up for what they believe is wrong, I and others have been known to challenge government and suffered 'subtle' warnings because of it. An internet forum is a good place for people to express and test ideas whilst forming any action which they may consider. It's not all hot air!

Agree totally Albert and Sultan, I never ever thought that I would be in favour of income tax increases but it is the only fair way to share the burden. What this lot of dimwits are thinking of is beyond belief and they are living in this fantasy world in which we are a tax haven!

The fact that they were afraid of going to arbitration so gave themselves and CS a pay rise is pathetic! Either we have the money for pay rises and bloated CS or we don't!

We can always borrow the money.

Why on earth they don't just increase income tax and have done with it? All of these stealth taxes only serve to antagonise the population as they don't paint a true picture of the situation. Is it that they want to preserve the illusion of a low tax environment or is it that they know that high wage earners will take the hump and have to contribute a greater share? As it stands, with low and high wage earners paying the same levels of stealth taxes, the top earners are quids in and less likely to question the governments policies. These are people best equipped to challenge government and they are obviously keeping them sweet through fear of having to explain themselves! WE ARE DEFINITELY NOT IN THIS TOGETHER!

Incredible! How on earth did they ever think that this would be repaid in the normal course of things!

I'm guessing that the debt's are internal i.e. cash borrowed from treasury reserves by a department, to be repaid from revenue?

But to do it this way is crass stupidity. Even if you get on board with their agenda, you would do these things with the greatest stealth possible, would you not? To put on a charge that can immediately be construed as a tax on bodily functions is surely just about as moronic as you can get. I agree wholeheartedly. Yes revenue needs to be increased in some way but to take a pay rise and announce this kind of tax makes you wonder about the mentality of those in power. I for one have lost confidence that they may have had some sort of idea about what they are doing now. Stand by for an announcement that a herd of highly paid consultants are being employed to analyse our situation and report back in five years with an action plan to save the ship!

You're right. It would still be nice to see a mass protest against rising taxation until government begins to realise that a pay freeze means a pay freeze at least!

They were foolish to devise a tax which affects everyone. They should have found another way to tax the poor more, because they don't vote. It's not only odd, it's stupid in the extreme. To my mind it shows the level of contempt that the government as a whole, elected and civil service have for the population of this island.

What is disconcerting to me is that we are paying increases in rates and indirect taxes annually, such as the yearly increase in road fund licence etc, but there does not seem to be a forecast in the public domain of when this is all going to end? What are we achieving and what is being done to bring meaningful industry to the island? I think the shit tax has actually brought things to the surface and made everyone realise what a complete mess we are now in. We have to bear a certain amount of responsibility for electing the same complete nincompoops time after time because they can deal with parish pump issues effectively. If we are in a crisis, we need to get rid of them and form a crisis management government. I can't think that many of our current bunch in power are up to the job! Then we need to look at the career civil servants who have got us into the mess through their incompetence and empire building. There is a culture of self interest running right through the Manx government and we need to take action somehow!

This might be my favourite ever post. I wonder if we will have Shit Tax Riots?

This is true. By arguing among ourselves about the method of collecting the taxes, we are losing the point that they are squeezing us harder and harder with each passing announcement. Allan Ball said today (No. He was a squeaky voiced footballer) Allan BELL said today that if we overdo the increased charges things will start to creak. Got news for him. They have been creaking for a while. A UK/IOM taxation/cost of living exercise at different income levels would be a lot more interesting than it used to be. For one thing, personal tax allowance which used to be twice that in the UK is actually about to fall behind as the Coalition moves their level to £10k When you take into consideration that we pay inflated rates in the following areas:- Heating fuel costs Electricity Road fuel Road tax Food costs Travel costs Cost of housing Entertainment and eating out Drink This is supposedly offset by lower tax but as Woolley says, this has been eroded away. When you consider that decent employment opportunities are disappearing and the average wage is distorted by the high wage earners, meaning that most are earning well below the £24,000 so called average. It is no wonder that retail is in the toilet! I wonder how long it will be before we have a mass exodus making any recovery impossible?

It's going to be interesting shortly to do a cost of living comparison to the UK. This is a shit tax imposed by shits!

It's a myth that the ferries ran whatever the weather. There were often winter cancellations in the hey day of eight passenger and three cargo vessels. Even cross channel routes are being affected at the moment and those ships are not only bigger, they are sailing on a shorter stretch of sea.

It's partially human curiosity and partly concern that you may know someone involved which drives the 'need' to know I think? It would be a terrible society if people didn't care what was going on, wouldn't it?