For the people at the top end of that range, that's earning of around £14,000 a year, before tax and national insurance etc.
The average income for someone working in the UK is around £26,000. But then we all ought to know that there are averages and averages.
10 people, nine earning £20,000 and one earning £80,000 = average income £26,000
10 people, five earning £14,000 four earning £20,000 one paid £110,000 = average income £26,000
Monday, 30 September 2013
Friday, 27 September 2013
Tax Cheats
As it keen support of at least the idea of a crackdown on tax cheats it is a disappointment to hear that HMCR have caught just 1 of the top 20 "most wanted" tax fraudsters on the list the announced last year.
Worse still though is the ease with which companies and individuals are quite legally able to avoid tax by thinking up tax breaks and lobbying behind closed doors for them to be implemented.
Worse still though is the ease with which companies and individuals are quite legally able to avoid tax by thinking up tax breaks and lobbying behind closed doors for them to be implemented.
Thursday, 26 September 2013
Preventing Crime
47% of prisoners have no qualifications - compared to just 15% of the UK working age population.
48% of prisoners have a reading age below that of an average 11 year old
65% of prisoners have the numeracy (maths skills) of below that of the average 11 year old
[in the general public around 23% of people have the maths and reading skills of less than an 11 year old]
41% of male prisoners and 30% of female prisoners have previously been excluded from school, rising to 52% of young prisoners.
Offenders who undertake prison education are three times less likley to reoffend than those who don't.
68% of prisoners were unemployed in the month before entering custody.
13% of prisoners have never worked
68% of prisoners beleive a job is essential in stopping reoffending
80% of prisoners are incapable of completing a job application form
Ex-offenders often make model employees as they are grateful to have a job and realise that their chances of getting another one are slim.
The cost of reoffending by recently released prisoners has been estimated as £11 billion a year in the UK.
So - if the Government is serious about saving money as well as reducing the human misery especially for victims of crime it ought to be doing more.
Instead of overcrowded prisons, we need prisons where people can be educated and learn skills and obtain qualifications that will help them secure employment.
Length of sentances, parole and priviledges could be linked to engagement with the education system.
Upon release prisoners need to be found employment - paying employees to take people on could be cheaper than leaving ex-offenders unemployed.
48% of prisoners have a reading age below that of an average 11 year old
65% of prisoners have the numeracy (maths skills) of below that of the average 11 year old
[in the general public around 23% of people have the maths and reading skills of less than an 11 year old]
41% of male prisoners and 30% of female prisoners have previously been excluded from school, rising to 52% of young prisoners.
Offenders who undertake prison education are three times less likley to reoffend than those who don't.
68% of prisoners were unemployed in the month before entering custody.
13% of prisoners have never worked
68% of prisoners beleive a job is essential in stopping reoffending
80% of prisoners are incapable of completing a job application form
Ex-offenders often make model employees as they are grateful to have a job and realise that their chances of getting another one are slim.
The cost of reoffending by recently released prisoners has been estimated as £11 billion a year in the UK.
So - if the Government is serious about saving money as well as reducing the human misery especially for victims of crime it ought to be doing more.
Instead of overcrowded prisons, we need prisons where people can be educated and learn skills and obtain qualifications that will help them secure employment.
Length of sentances, parole and priviledges could be linked to engagement with the education system.
Upon release prisoners need to be found employment - paying employees to take people on could be cheaper than leaving ex-offenders unemployed.
Wednesday, 25 September 2013
TV in the 1970's
Nice to see it, to see it nice by Brian Viner (the 1970s in front of the Telly) isbn 978 1 41652 777
Is an excellent book, but only i guess if you used to watch a lot of TV in the 1970's.
If not, I expect even the programme title will past you by. Viner is an entertaining writing and skillfully mixes just enough (not too much) of his own childhood in with his telly watching habits.
Fascinating to see a BBC schedule from October 1976. BCC 1 came on at 8.50am and finished at 11.20. BBC didn't even start 3.05 but did continue till 12.55 if you wanted to watch an old black and white film. For me just Dr Who and the Two Ronnies stand out as something I would have wanted to to watch. Probably Basil Brush and the generation game if I couldn't find something better to do and that made me nostalgic - today there is perhaps too much TV you can spend 10 minutes just flicking through the channels. One theory is that programmes used to get huge ratings because there was nothing better on, but I am more sympathetic to the idea that for their time the programmes were the best that could be provided. Knowing one had to entertain a large part of the population was an incentive to make something worthwhile. While there was certainly a lot of stuff that doesn't bera repeating, there was and is stuff of excellent quality and depending on ones taste in TV, entertaining viewing.
Perhaps my favourite bit of the book was Michael Parkinson saying "I don't believe in the honours system" Honours he explained should be for real heroes not people like him did not deserve honours for "being highly paid and having the time of our lives. I've never ever woken up and and said sod it I've got to go to work." He said too many celebrities did charity work in the hope of getting an honour.
That is the now Sir Michael Parkinson CBE.
Is an excellent book, but only i guess if you used to watch a lot of TV in the 1970's.
If not, I expect even the programme title will past you by. Viner is an entertaining writing and skillfully mixes just enough (not too much) of his own childhood in with his telly watching habits.
Fascinating to see a BBC schedule from October 1976. BCC 1 came on at 8.50am and finished at 11.20. BBC didn't even start 3.05 but did continue till 12.55 if you wanted to watch an old black and white film. For me just Dr Who and the Two Ronnies stand out as something I would have wanted to to watch. Probably Basil Brush and the generation game if I couldn't find something better to do and that made me nostalgic - today there is perhaps too much TV you can spend 10 minutes just flicking through the channels. One theory is that programmes used to get huge ratings because there was nothing better on, but I am more sympathetic to the idea that for their time the programmes were the best that could be provided. Knowing one had to entertain a large part of the population was an incentive to make something worthwhile. While there was certainly a lot of stuff that doesn't bera repeating, there was and is stuff of excellent quality and depending on ones taste in TV, entertaining viewing.
Perhaps my favourite bit of the book was Michael Parkinson saying "I don't believe in the honours system" Honours he explained should be for real heroes not people like him did not deserve honours for "being highly paid and having the time of our lives. I've never ever woken up and and said sod it I've got to go to work." He said too many celebrities did charity work in the hope of getting an honour.
That is the now Sir Michael Parkinson CBE.
Monday, 23 September 2013
Modern Conservatism
"we must advance our historic mission to free people and businesses from the state by letting them keep more of what they earn"
Given the scale of tax avoidance it is quite difficult to see how the super wealthly can pay less tax, and given the low level of wages and the high cost of housing, it is difficult to see how the Conservative Party intends to free ordinary people from the state.
Given the scale of tax avoidance it is quite difficult to see how the super wealthly can pay less tax, and given the low level of wages and the high cost of housing, it is difficult to see how the Conservative Party intends to free ordinary people from the state.
Saturday, 21 September 2013
Politics of Envy ? Wealth Creators or Greedy Rich ?
It is common amongst the Conservatives to trot out the line the other parties are all about "clobbering the rich" and "attacking the wealth creators" - this it is argued is bad for the poor as it will mean wealth creators are driven away, jobs will be lost and the poor will be worse off.
To those who might welcome the rich being clobbered, the first comment is to note how little either the Labour or Lib Dems have said about clobbering the rich - Labour rhetoric and more importantly policies have been little different to the Conservatives and while the Lib Dems talk alot about making the rich pay their fair share - fair seems to mean slightly more than they used to but not so much that you'd notice.
The Conservatives use the words "wealth creators" and "rich" inter-changeably, but by any normal usage they do not mean the same thing.
The picture painted by Chris Grayling (who's he ??) one of the leading Conservatives is of the hardworking entrepreneur who puts their house on the line to launch a business for which they work 7 days a week. Funnily enough that is rarely the kind of wealth creator or rich person people object to.
To those who might welcome the rich being clobbered, the first comment is to note how little either the Labour or Lib Dems have said about clobbering the rich - Labour rhetoric and more importantly policies have been little different to the Conservatives and while the Lib Dems talk alot about making the rich pay their fair share - fair seems to mean slightly more than they used to but not so much that you'd notice.
The Conservatives use the words "wealth creators" and "rich" inter-changeably, but by any normal usage they do not mean the same thing.
The picture painted by Chris Grayling (who's he ??) one of the leading Conservatives is of the hardworking entrepreneur who puts their house on the line to launch a business for which they work 7 days a week. Funnily enough that is rarely the kind of wealth creator or rich person people object to.
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