I've had an interesting conversation with a Met firearms officer, he describes his area as being like "the wild west", and before doing his firearms training was attacked by someone with a sword.Sim G wrote:shugie wrote:If it wasn't for the fact that corporation and the higher levels bands of income tax have decreased, I'd be inclined to agree with you. The choice wasn't between becoming like Greece, we have a lot more wealth than they do, and our tax system works, more or less. It was a political choice to lower taxes by reducing the money going to public services. And the same thing happened in the last budget, income tax changes for higher earners made them better off, lower down the pay scale, changes in National Insurance negated the slight improvement for basic rate tax payers. But there was no more money for policing..Sim G wrote:There wasn’t a lot of choice. We’d have ended up with the same sort of economy as Greece and Italy. !
Corporation tax did go down, to its lowest level for a long time, but the money collected in corporation tax has actually gone up to record levels! That’s no doubt because low taxation for corporations makes it a far more attractive place to trade and set up, so more are doing it.
No, there was no more money for policing. In real terms funding is 18% lower than it was in 2010 and my salary is worth 22% less, if memory serves.
We’ve heard stories of police officers in London now claiming for free school meals for their children....
What I will say about violence in London in particular, as that’s what grabs headlines. London, during the day with commuters and tourists has a population of around 11 million. About the same as Belgium. Belgium has about 1200 murders a year. London, with around 120 won’t be doing too bad! Got to be careful not to sensationalise it.
And as for police numbers. England and Wales has about 120000 coppers with about 6000 of those armed. France, after the terrorist attacks were able to deploy 240000 police officers. Nigh on all armed. I believe they are now all armed and are encouraged to take their service weapons home and carry off duty. Could you get imagine such an idea was even considered here....?
The amount of corporation tax did increase, but there is no evidence to suggest that dropping the rate of corporation tax increased UK business, most of the increase in value came because the economy was picking up. For most companies, the cost of changing operating country exceeds the worth of small percentage changes in corporation tax, and for smaller business, the introduction of the dividend tax more than negated any decrease in corporation tax. The main beneficiaries were big companies who carried on doing what they were doing before, but with a lower tax bill.
