WHAT the Government giveth it must first taketh away, so there should be rejoicing at any suggestion that some of us will pay less tax. But for once the news is about as welcome as the prospect of a general election to the Labour party.
According to HM Revenue & Customs a million fewer, or 2.9 million individuals, will pay higher rates of tax this year, compared with 3.9 million last, cutting the tax take by some £16 billion.
These numbers speak volumes not about the fall of gree
dy bankers, but the toll the recession is having on ordinary white collar workers and their families.
Higher rate tax kicks in at £37,400, so only those earning around that threshold are likely to be hit, following sharp falls in earnings.
So we are talking about self-employed creative types, as well as small-town solicitors and surveyors. Indeed, anyone relying on commission or overtime could now be struggling to make ends meet, as well as those on short-time working.
Throughout the economy many have been forced to accept pay cuts and wage freezes, but here is the first hard evidence of significant falls in living standards for a big chunk of the population. And what did our leaders have to say about it?
Et tu, BrownWatching the Labour party squabble among itself was like witnessing a messy divorce with different stables of friends and family tearing each other apart. As Shakespeare put it in that most political of plays, Julius Caesar: "There is a tide in the affairs of man, which, if taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in misery."
As it watched itself annihilated south of the Border, the thought of spending a generation in the wilderness pushed some over the edge of the cliff desperate to seize the moment.
It's a funny old world though. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's career left swinging on a thread by a wave of resignations, and complaints of his handling of the MPs' expenses scandal and his lack of charisma on the television.
Yet Brown was one of the few in the cabinet to emerge wholly untainted by expenses. Yes, there was some question over a £50 weekly cleaning bill. But as anyone who has ever employed a reputable cleaning firm knows, £50 hardly buys a quick lick round a couple of rooms.
Ironically, he was brought low by ministers whose expenses you needed a whole pack of nose pegs to read. And complaints about his television appearances are insensitively cruel. He has an eye impediment following a sporting injury, which explains his stilted facial expressions.
Was he really to be felled by such dubious individuals and charges? Surely, if he deserved to be debunked, it should be for just cause, such as the many failings the rest of us bitterly resent?
His tax raid on pensions would have been a good place to start. On that front, and as an aside, I nearly lost the will to live when I heard Yvette Cooper is the new Pensions Secretary.
What about endless stealth taxes or financial regulation which bankrupted Britain? Or for fuelling and then failing to control an unprecedented property boom by setting inflation targets which were deaf and blind to house price movements and housing costs. And don't forget the illegal war in Iraq, for which he voted.
On these issues the rebels were silent, as his bodyguard rallied round. So, he has built his throne of bayonets. Just watch him sit on it.
Brass necksWhere there's muck there's brass, they say in Yorkshire, which means there's money in dirty work. Today's muck is more often than not human misery. We are not short of firms looking to make a quick buck out of those facing ruin thanks to the recession.
One group I find odious are mortgage-to-rent companies, who prey on those deeply in debt. There are many reputable mortgage-to-rent schemes run by local authorities and housing associations. But some are operated by private businessmen.
Some of these can plague those desperate to avoid repossession, offering to buy their home for a fraction of the value, and promising to allow them to remain as tenants, and even buy the property back at a pre-determined price at some stage in the future.
Many sign up unaware the tenancy guarantee can be for as little as six months, and the buy-back promise virtually worthless.
Thankfully the game is up. Watchdogs at the Financial Services Authority are to regulate these operations, which will force the cowboys out of business. Shame.
