We are a heavily taxed country, most of it is indirect taxation, road fuel at about $7.50 US per gallon, alchohol taxed at about 60%, car tax at an average of about £200 pa, and heavy trucks pay over £3000 pa.
Income tax is low compared with many other countries. This is lunacy, as income tax is the only one paid solely by people who are earning, and doesn't hit every one from the old age pensioner to the young unemployed as the other taxes do.
The EC has ruined our steel industry, and contributed towards the demise of most of our coal mines. As for the fishing industry, I want to weep every time I think about it. UK boats are pensioned out, the boats and their crews slung on the scrap heap for a pittance, while foreign owned boats who often ignore the rules on mesh and fish sizes, fish so close to the shore that paddling children are in danger of being included in their catch.
EC, don't talk to me about EC, we signed up to an economic alliance, and now find ourselves in a mega bureaucracy with delusions of grandeur, run by overpaid and often corrupt officials. The auditors have refused to sign off the accounts of the EC for several years, and this is because of the double dealing and fiddling that goes on all the time.
I want to keep my currency, and I would also like my country back
please.
Giok