Greedy Gordon Brown is snatching nearly a quarter of the average wage packet in income tax and national insurance.

But when a crippling barrage of more than 100 stealth taxes is added, workers are paying almost half their earnings to the Chancellor. Earlier this month he increased fuel duty and airport charges in his Pre-Budget Report.

This year it was calculated that Britons must work until June 3 before they earn money for themselves. Before that date every penny goes in tax.

Now shock figures from the Office of National Statistics reveal that the situation has got even worse.

They disclose that income tax and national insurance cost 23.6p for every pound earned. That is the highest level since records were first kept 20 years ago.

That has increased from around 18p when Labour came to power in 1997.
In total, the nation's tax bill has risen by £219billion since Labour came to power the equivalent of £9,000 for each household.

And it comes on top of the stealth taxes, including the £5billion annual raid on pension funds, rising fuel levies on petrol and diesel and the ever growing grab from inheritance grab fuelled by the house-price boom.

It is this that is taking the GREAT out of Great Britain.