I must not listen to radio 4, I must not listen to radio 4, I must not listen to radio 4, I must not listen to radio 4.
Usually I listen to music during the day and get my news via the internet but yesterday accidentally caught Baroness Williams on radio 4's The World at One which resulted in the angry blog http://rephidimstreet.blogspot.com/2010/12/oh-baroness-williams-what-let-down.html [Click on this blog title to go directly to it]
Today I walked into a room where radio 4's Woman's Hour was playing. Mistake. David Willetts, Minister of State for Universities and Science, was defending the rise in student tuition fees. We have heard it all so many times but what enraged me even more today was the comment that it was disproportionately unfair to poorer working women who were paying out of their taxes to support students.
Well! There are lots of items upon which I resent my taxes being spent: off hand I can name defence, civil list, subsidies to private sector organisations taking what should be public sector contracts in areas like health, education, social welfare..... And lots of areas where I would like my taxes spent: pensions [ok I have an interest here], welfare,education, health ...... I do not get a say in where my taxes go and nor does anyone else, only through the ballot box, letters and petitions to the Government or on demos. Yet according to David Willets the students on demos are wishing to exploit poor working women by protesting at the rise in tuition fees. A very clever - if untrue - take on this issue.
"Elizannie", someone is shouting, "you are an unemployed woman with no income so where are these taxes you claim to be paying?"
I reply: " Well, yes I am a kept woman having been unemployed due to medical issues for three years. Luckily Other Half can afford to keep me [just!] and he pays income tax. And I have spent nearly all my savings from my workings years, savings after tax paid on the income at that time. And when I spend those savings look at all the tax I pay on my purchases. Every time I treat myself to a book or CD from amazon or at this time of year buy a Christmas present I am paying VAT - which is due to rise in January. I chip in toward the heavy Council Tax we pay here in the South East. I buy stamps for the Christmas cards I send. I no longer pay road tax as I had to stop driving and sell my car [which gave me more savings to spend and thus give the government more VAT!] but until earlier this year I paid that to the revenue. When I do get my pension sorted out if it was a large as it should be [it won't be!] that would be taxable. So I am an [indirect] tax payer."
There are many indirect tax payers in the country like me, not paying income tax but paying tax in the ways outlined above. Many are cared for by university graduates [as are income tax payers of course!] in hospitals, social work areas etc. Older people may have grandchildren taught by graduates in schools. I wonder how many of them are worried that in future there will be less graduates to do the jobs properly. Other Half is an engineer and wonders as there are so few younger people with engineering degrees/qualifications now that if uni courses are cut what will happen to our remaining industries in the future? Maggie Thatcher set out to rid the country of its manufacturing industries, she succeeded but sadly did not propose alternative work places.
The photograph is taken from the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-11940832 That's called irony.
