How about a tax cut for all of us?

Well they're at it again.

No not the Tories or the terrorists (who ever they may be this time around) but this time the minority that asks for so much but contributes so little.
Can you guess who I'm talking about? Could it be the long term unemployed or the sick? How about single parents? According to the media,they are always asking for something aren't they?.How those pesky rioters?
Well I'll tell you to save you all from guessing.

Economists.Yes that's right Economists.

Apparently a bunch of "20 high profile Economists" have got together to vent their spleen about how the 50% tax bracket that the 310,000 folks that earn over £150,000 pay is doing lasting damage to the UK economy.

Surely I cant be the only one who thinks that when they say "UK economy" they really mean "my own personal wealth which is mine so there" I must admit though I did feel a little bit sorry for them,because after they have had their tax deducted,how on earth do they manage on such a small amount?

At a time of national economic crisis like we are in now,people on high incomes can and should contribute far more in taxes.

Instead, this vicious cycle has been at work for years:

Reduced taxes on the rich leave them with more money to influence politicians and politics. Their influence wins them further tax reductions, which gives them still more money to put to political use. When the loss of tax revenue from the rich worsens already strained government budgets, the rich press politicians to cut public services and government jobs and not even debate a return to the higher taxes the rich used to pay.

How do the rich justify and excuse this record? They claim that they can invest the money they save from taxes and thereby create jobs, etc,some even going so far as to threaten to leave the country and take their money with them.But does this ever happen?
Actually cutting rich people's taxes is often very bad for the rest of us.It's been proven that the wealthiest take the money they save from taxes and invest big parts of it in China, India and elsewhere which often produces more jobs over there, fewer jobs here, and more imports of goods produced abroad!

Another thing that can be done with the money they don't pay in taxes is to invest it in hedge funds and with stockbrokers to make profitable investments. These days, that often means speculating in oil and food, which drives up their prices, undermines economic recovery for the rest of us, and produces acute suffering around the globe. Those same hedge funds and brokers likewise use part of the money rich people have saved from taxes to speculate in the global stock markets. That has recently driven stock prices higher: hence, the stock market recovery.

And that mostly helps – you guessed it – the richest who own most of the stocks.

Rioting for what? Something you really need?

As the news has moved onto other things such as Libya,I thought that the time was right to resurrect those events of a few weeks ago that had parts of the UK in terror.
That's right the riots.It seems to have completely gone of the radar for everyone apart from those poor folks that lost homes and businesses in it.

Aside from the sheer mindless ferocity and violence of those few days, one of the most depressing aspects of the protracted smashup was the nature of the looting: time and again, shops selling trainers or gadgets were targeted first. Fancy shoes and electric widgets mark the peak of ambition. Every looter was effectively a child chanting: "Give me my toys, I want more toys. Look at the idiot(I would have used a stronger word for him,but I don't want to offend) captured on video mugging the injured Malaysian student. Watch his unearned swagger as he walks away; the size of a man, yet he overdoes that swagger like a performing toddler. That's an idiot who never grew up.

Why the obsession with trainers? Trainers really aren't worth the effort. You stick them on your feet and walk around for a while util they go out of fashion. Whoopie doo. Yes, I know they're also status symbols, but anyone who tries to impress others with their shoe choice is a dismally pathetic and shallow character indeed – and anyone genuinely impressed by footwear has all the soaring spirit of a punnet of moss. There's no life to be found in "look at my shoes". There just isn't.

In the smouldering aftermath, some politicians, keen to shift the focus from social inequality, have muttered darkly about the role of BlackBerry Messenger, Twitter and Facebook – frightening new technologies that, like the pen and the human mouth, allow citizens to swap messages with one another.

Some have even called for the likes of Twitter to be temporarily suspended in times of great national crisis. That'd be reassuring – like the scene at the start of a zombie movie where the news bulletin is suddenly replaced by a whistling tone and a stark caption reading PLEASE STAND BY. The last thing we need in an emergency is the ability to share information. Perhaps the government could also issue us with gags we could slip over our mouths the moment the sirens start wailing? Hey, we could still communicate if we really had to. Provided we have learned semaphore.Hey let's just burn any books that we don't agree with either.Hang on,that's already been done.

If preventing further looting is the whole point of the exercise, then as well as addressing the massive gulf between the haves and the have-nots, I'd take a long hard look at MTV Cribs and similar TV shows that routinely confuse human achievement with the mindless acquisition of gaudy bling bullshit. The media heaves with propaganda promoting sensation and consumption above all else.

Back in the 80s the pioneering aspirational soap opera Dallas dangled an unattainable billionaire lifestyle in front of millions, but at least had the intelligence to make the Ewing family miserable and consumed with self-loathing.

At the same time, shows aimed at kids were full of presenters cheerfully making puppets out of old yoghurt pots, while shows aimed at teens largely depicted cheeky urchins copping off with each other in the dole queue. Today, whenever my world-weary eyes alight on a "youth show" it merely resembles a glossily edited advert for celebrity lifestyles, co-starring a jet-ski and a tower of gold. And regardless of the time slot, every other commercial shrieks that I deserve the best of everything. I and I alone. I'd gladly introduce a law requiring broadcasters to show five minutes of footage of a rich man dying alone for every 10 minutes of fevered avarice. It'd be worth it just to see them introduce it on T4.

If we were to delete all aspirational programming altogether, the schedules might feel a bit empty, so I'd fill the void with footage of a well-stocked Foot Locker window, thereby tricking any idiots tuning in on a recently looted television into smashing the screen in an attempt to grab the coveted trainers within.

Speaking of Foot Locker, if I were the head of Nike, I'd encourage Foot Locker to open special "decoy" branches near looting hotspots – unattended stores stocked full of trainers with soft sponge heels. Anyone pinching a pair of these would find it almost impossible to hoof in a window ever again. You'd be kicking fruitlessly at the glass for 15 years, making it less an act of spontaneous violence and more a powerful visual metaphor for your misguided existence.

But perhaps it's better to nip future trouble in the bud with the use of deterrents. Obviously a small percentage of the rioters are sociopaths, and you'll never make any kind of impression on their psyche without a cranial drill. But the majority should be susceptible to threats. Not violent ones – we're not animals – but creatively unpleasant ones. Forget the water cannon. Unleash the slurry cannon. That kind of thing.

Greater Manchester police has attracted attention by using Twitter as a substitute for the "perp walk": naming-and-shaming rioters by tweeting their personal details as they leave court.

Not bad, but maybe not humiliating enough. Personally, I'd seal them inside a Perspex box glued to a billboard overlooking a main plaza for a week, where people can turn up and jeer at them. It's not totally inhumane: they would be fed through a tube in the top – but crucially, they would be fed nothing but cabbage, asparagus and figs, and since they wouldn't be allowed out for toilet breaks, it would be getting pretty unpleasant in there after 48 hours. And it would be a cheery pick-me-up for passersby.

One for the road?

The recent news that there may soon be a minimum price per unit of alcohol (in Scotland anyway) has got me thinking...

Britain as a whole,and not just Scotland, is getting drunker than ever, apparently, with a government "consultation" expected to reveal the shocking statistic that, compared with 20 years ago, there are 80 per cent more documentaries or news items showing a clip of a girl in a short skirt being sick on a bench while a lad with no shirt makes a noise like a werewolf as he's thrown into a police van.

But what really gets my back up is the increase in pompous and self righteous doctors who come on the radio or programmes like The One Show to give us supposed guidelines, telling us, "Those of us who think we're drinking moderately may still be at risk. For example if you have one glass of wine and then later in life have another, you are technically an alcoholic and AA is the only option open to you".

Then they say, "Of course there's no harm in drinking safely. I often enjoy an Italian wine with my evening meal, by opening the bottle and pouring it all into a bush. That way there's only a small risk to my liver, as long as I do it once a month as a treat."

Websites offering advice on safe drinking are full of top tips (like the ones found in Viz) like, "If you're thinking of having a lager please consult your doctor first." Or, "One way of cutting down consumption while still enjoying a wild girls' night out, is on alternate rounds instead of having a drink have a bowl of soup, or go canoeing."

On one particular website I looked at, It said that three pints of medium- strength beer, twice a week, can lead to "heart disease, liver disease, impotence and cancer." I didn't check but I expect it went on, "and a fourth pint will cause cat flu, plague, rust, feeling like a woman trapped inside a man's body, fascism and a tendency to suddenly turn inside-out in the morning." I don't know about you,but can you name a medium strength beer? I can't...

But I digress.The website also told me, "If you consume alcohol to feel good, or avoid feeling bad, your drinking could become problematic." So it's only safe to drink if it's to make yourself feel worse.I had a can of Kestrel Super Strength and instantly felt terrible.Not because of the alcohol,just because it is awful tasting lager.

As we all know, alcohol can cause havoc, so we shouldn't be flippant. You only have to look at the demise of poor Amy Winehouse, who presumably had three pints of bitter on a Sunday and then heavens above, three pints of Mild the following Friday.

Unfortunately the campaign against drunkenness doesn't seem to have learned from the "Just say no" anti-drugs campaign, which connects with hardly anyone as it insists drugs lead rapidly to disaster and aren't fun. But if they weren't fun there'd be no need to tell people not to take them, just as there's no need to tell people "Just say no" to sticking your bare arse into a nest of wasps because no one does it anyway because it's not fun.

But people do see drinking as fun and enjoyable and in the current economic climate,why should a person who chooses to relax with a glass of something stronger than coffee be penalised by an increase in price?

Sure excess drinking should be addressed but maybe the reasons why people drink to excess should be investigated first.

The complex job of getting young people away from drug addiction and alcoholism will still be done by charities, such as Mentor UK. But they have declared that the recent cuts in rehab clinics have made that almost impossible, saying that proposed cuts "could have devastating implications".

So we're left with doctors telling us not to drink sherry on two consecutive Christmases, and if Amy was still around she could have updated her song by singing, "They tried to make me go to rehab but they said, 'Piss off, we've shut'."