Yearly Archives: 2013

Post Office Managers Protest In Pay Row

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http://news.sky.com/story/1158598/post-office-managers-protest-in-pay-row

Image of post office van next to postboxPost Office managers will take their first industrial action in 34 years later this week in a dispute over pay.

Members of the Unite union, which represents 900 managers, will work to rule for 24 hours on Friday and refuse to do any overtime.

They will also refuse to travel outside of their hours or work anywhere other than their normal place of employment.

Unite accused the Post Office of “dragging its feet” for 16 months over a pay deal and warned of further action if the row is not resolved.

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I don’t want any shit tomorrow

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I’m going tomorrow to somewhere that anti-terrorist shits have harassed me previously. There is an interview and I intend to take notes.

There is no need for you to be there.

[later edit:

Like there is no need for you to reroute buses

Like there is no need to call the fire brigade whenever you see me (FESTIVAL 2012)

[later edit: like  there is no need to follow buses in a police car if I ever manage to catch a bus that you haven’t rerouted

[later: I think that that’s harassment

[and what I am very pissed off about is that former senior policemen [edit: policeman] [edit: policemen] and politicians are not going to be held accountable

[Later: I strongly object to be regarded as a potential terrorist because I am a political activist. Political activism should be regarded as legitimate activity in a democratic society.

 

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Eurobonds scandal: The high street giants avoiding millions in tax

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eurobonds-scandal-the-high-street-giants-avoiding-millions-in-tax-8897591.html

Many of Britain’s best-known high street chains are avoiding millions of pounds in tax through the controversial Eurobonds scheme.

Food chains including Nando’s, Pizza Express, Café Rouge, Strada and Pret A Manger have cut their taxable profits by borrowing from their owners through the Channel Islands Stock Exchange. High street retailers doing the same include BHS, the electronics retailer Maplin, Office and Pets At Home. The revelations form the third part of an investigation by Corporate Watch and The Independent into major UK companies using the quoted Eurobond exemption, a regulatory loophole the Government knows about but has decided not to close.

David Cameron is expected to be questioned today in Parliament about the scheme and HMRC’s failure to tackle it. Instead of putting their money in the shares of the companies they buy, the owners – mostly private equity funds – lend it instead. The interest on the loans cuts the UK companies’ taxable income each year and the exemption – triggered because the loans are listed on the Channel Islands Stock Exchange – means the interest goes to the owners tax free. Without this loophole, HMRC could deduct a 20 per cent “withholding tax” from payments overseas and the overall tax saving would be greatly reduced. Yesterday The Independent reported how Camelot had avoided tax using this method and how HMRC was lobbied by financial firms to keep the loophole open.

Murray Worthy, a tax campaigner with War on Want, said: “This isn’t just a niche issue that’s being used by a handful of companies. We’ve seen how angry people are about the ease with which these companies can avoid paying their fair share, [and] the only reason this is happening is because of the influence of big business on the Government’s tax rules.” Gondola Group – which owns Pizza Express, Zizzi and Ask – has avoided as much as £77m in UK corporation tax since it was bought by the Cinven private equity fund in 2006. Cinven loaned Gondola more than £300m at a 12.5 per cent interest rate but only invested £8m in equity. Instead of receiving the interest payments on the loans every year, Cinven has allowed it to accrue on the debt, compounding the amount taken off Gondola’s profits every year. When Cinven sells the restaurants, which it is reportedly considering, it can receive the £276.8m it is owed tax free.

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27/11/13 Having received a takedown notice from the Independent newspaper for a different posting, I have reviewed this article which links to an article at the Independent’s website in order to attempt to ensure conformance with copyright laws.

I consider this posting to comply with copyright laws since
a. Only a small portion of the original article has been quoted satisfying the fair use criteria, and / or
b. This posting satisfies the requirements of a derivative work.

Please be assured that this blog is a non-commercial blog (weblog) which does not feature advertising and has not ever produced any income.

dizzy

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Borrowing figures show how Osborne allowed thousands to avoid 50p tax rate

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http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/10/borrowing-figures-show-how-osborne-allowed-thousands-avoid-50p-tax-rate

The spike in tax receipts was caused by individuals deferring income and bonuses to benefit from the new 45p rate, not a surge in earnings.

By George Eaton

george_osborne

The latest borrowing figures are being trumpeted by the Tories as evidence of the success of George Osborne’s economic plan, with tax receipts up by 7% compared to last year. But what they won’t mention is that this spike has more to do with high earners avoiding the 50p tax rate than it does with any rise in earnings. By deferring income and bonuses from 2012 until this year to take advantage of the new 45p rate, taxpayers have caused a £2.9bn increase in receipts. But with earnings growth of just 0.7% in the most recent month, it’s far from certain that this improved trend will continue.

As the OBR notes in its commentary on the figures:

Growth in both income tax and NICs for the year-to-date is above the full year forecasts, but this largely reflects the fact that receipts in the first few months of the year benefited from the deferral of some income/bonuses to take advantage of the reduction of the additional rate of income tax to 45p and some temporary effects in non-PAYE income tax. Prospects for PAYE and NIC receipts growth will depend on the feed-through from the low growth in average weekly earnings in the latest data.

The IFS similarly warns:

It is important to note that some of the strong growth in receipts observed earlier in the year may not be expected to persist for the rest of the financial year, as it may be the result of some high income individuals pushing part of their income from last year into the beginning of this tax year in order to take advantage of the reduction in the higher rate of income tax.

And with individuals paying tax at 45p, rather than 50p, the Exchequer is left out of pocket. Osborne’s stated justification for abolishing the 50p rate was that, due to mass avoidance, it raised “just a third of the £3bn” expected. But while it’s true that £16bn of income was shifted into the previous tax year  – when the rate was still 40p – this was a trick the rich could only have played once. And as the government has acknowledged on other occasions, tax avoidance isn’t an argument for cutting tax, it’s an argument for stopping avoidance.

Having falsely claimed that the (anomalous) first year of the 50p rate proved that it was ineffective, the Tories are now using the (anomalous) first year of the 45p rate to argue that they were right to scrap it. We’ll never know how much the 50p rate would actually have raised – and that is just as Osborne intended.

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Has the UK Signed Up to Build a Faulty Nuclear Power Plant?

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http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/katie-mcque/has-the-uk-signedup-to-bu_b_4136299.html?utm_hp_ref=uk-politics&ir=UK+Politics

by Katie McQue

On Monday, the UK woke-up to the news that the government had struck a deal to build our first new nuclear plant in over 18 years. The 3.2GW plant, named Hinkley Point C, has been touted as a job-maker and a boost to our energy security. Worryingly, however, the design of this nuclear reactor may be flawed, potentially exposing the UK to huge financial risks, as well a gravely unsafe nuclear plant.

The group of firms responsible for building Hinkley Point C; EDF, Areva, China General Nuclear Power Group and China National Nuclear Corp, intend to use nuclear reactor technology that has not yet proven to be successful. In fact, it has caused huge time delays and spiralling budgets in other nuclear projects that are yet to become operational.

Even Ed Davey, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate change has admitted in an interview that the projects using the same nuclear reactor have a track record of mistakes.

Podcast of the interview with Ed Davey:

http://icisenergy.podomatic.com/entry/2013-06-13T07_38_01-07_00

Hinkley Point C will use Areva’s European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) nuclear technology. It is the same reactor being used in the Flamanville 3 plant in France and two reactors in China, which are all EDF projects. The Olkiluoto plant in Finland, being developed by Finnish utility Teollisuuden Voima, is also using the EPR.

The construction at Flamanville has overrun by four years and costs have doubled. Olkiluoto, meanwhile, has been hit by delays of over six years. Some experts have estimated its budget has tripled. Less is known about the status of the Chinese power plants.

It is probable that Hinkley Point C may meet similar technical difficulties to that of Flamanville and Olkiluoto projects, since these engineering issues have not yet been resolved.

“Nobody is taking bets at the moment. Even EDF are in despair about the EPR reactor,” said Paul Dorfman of the Energy Institute, University College London. “EDF argue that the Chinese projects are going well. But there are rumours that they’re facing similar problems to Flamanville and Olkiluoto.”
http://www.icis.com/heren/articles/2013/05/09/9666925/concerns+over+uks+hinkley+nuclear+technology+could+add+to.html

Moreover, the major issues with this reactor lie with its computerised control system, known and the instrumentation and control system. Experts believe that the computerised back-up system is too similar to the front-end computer. So, if a fault, either technical glitch or cyber-attack damages one of the computers, it will ll likely cause the whole operational system to crash or become uncontrollable.

“If a technical problem occurs with the plant, you need an entirely independent back-up system, which there isn’t. So if you lose the first system, it might take out the second system. This is a problem with the plants being built in Finland and France.” Stephen Thomas, professor of energy policy at the University of Greenwich.

Unlike most reactors, the EPR does not have manual shut-down system, leaving it further vulnerable for malfunction.

The UK government’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) flagged problems with the instrumentation and control system during its design assessment process. In its quarterly updates on progress, each aspect of the plan was graded by a traffic light-style alert system that represented the difficulty of solving the issues raised.

In August 2012, six issues related to the instrumentation and control system were highlighted. Two were graded as “amber”, meaning that remedying the issue is feasible, but needs prompt attention. Four were given a “red” alert, which, according to the report means the resolving of these issues are “in serious doubt with serious risks apparent”.

But in December 2012 the nuclear regulators approved the EPR design, signing off all of these alerts without much explanation. Many experts have questioned how this is possible, especially since the design faults have not yet been rectified at the Finnish and French nuclear plants. These reports can be found on the ONR’s website.

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