Can you believe this? Free of charge? So I take this to mean that the Government, in its magnanimous, gracious and charitable spirit, has been providing taxpayers with a "free" water service for all these years. Does he not understand where government gets its spending money from? I can't tell whether Mr Bell is deliberately spinning away, if he's just unwittingly reading from a script written for him by some civil servant, or if he genuinely believes what he's saying.
To quote Mrs Thatcher: "There is no such thing as public money; there is only taxpayers' money."
Mr Bell, may I humbly propose that you take your "No-one wants to pay for things they have previously had free of charge but we have to do it" mantra and speak those EXACT same words to your buddies in the government who get their pension contributions paid for by the Isle of Man taxpayer.
Mr Houghton, please can you come on here and tell us who poor pensioners and minimum wage workers are supposed to contact to advise you that they will have difficulty paying the tax? Do you need bank statements or a wage slip? Please explain the exact procedure involved for people on low incomes.
Thanks in advance.