This should give Dave more "fuel" to have a rant...

[Bookworm]

Received by e-mail, and translated at no expense to yourselves for your perusal (ain't I good? )

 

 

For all the milk cows in Belgium, France and all Europe:

 

1) a bit of history:

 

In the year of our Lord 2000, the dollar was worth €1.2 and 1 barrel of oil was $60, so €72 and we paid €0.82 / litre.

 

2) Nowadays, mid-march In the year of our Lord 2008:

 

$1 = €0.65 and the oil barrel had recently shot throught the roof at over $110, so a barrel is €70.1, and we pay € 1.25 / litre.

 

And now, dear milk cows, ask yourselves the following question:

If the cost of a barrel is cheaper for us in Europe than in 2000... Why is petrol at least 50% more expensive than in 2000?

 

There must be some people seriously filling their pockets!

 

So, dear milk cows, please carry on working nicely and close your eyes, but the day will come where the $ will climb again,when that happens, I don't even dare think about it...

[Guest Gertie100]

I must be on holiday mode already - it took me 3 reads to work out what the hell milk had to do with the price of oil!!!!!

 

Thanks for cheering me up Bookie - along with the prospect of snow on Sunday in Paris I am very peed off now!

[JonCris]

Yeah Gertie but look on the bright side- the fuel will be cheaper:)

[Bookworm]

Funnily enough, Gertie, when I first got it, I also wondered about what milk cows had to do with it, then the penny dropped.

 

The "good" news for some (ok, for me!) is that diesel is actually cheaper than unleaded in France.

[dave]

Yes, I was already angered by the currency fluctuations and oil prices already...just wait until we invade an oil rich country like Iraq; then all petrol will cost next to nothing....oh, hang on......

 

Just to keep within the chearyness, here is a list of the first 90 (yep, just the first 90) tax increases since 1997:

 

July 1997

01 • Mortgage Interest Tax Relief At Source (MIRAS) reduced from 15% to 10%

02 • Dividend Tax Credits for pension schemes abolished

03 • Income tax relief on health insurance abolished

04 • Insurance Premium Tax extended to some health insurance

05 • Road Fuel Tax escalator increased to 6%

06 • Vehicle Excise Duty increased

07 • Tobacco duty escalator increased to 5%

08 • Stamp Duty raised to 2%

09 • Carry back of Corporation Tax losses limited to 1 year

10 • Windfall tax on utilities

 

March 1998

11 • Tax relief for the married couple's allowance (MCA) cut to 10%

12 • Top rate of Insurance Premium Tax extended to travel insurance

13 • Exceptional increase in tobacco and alcohol duties

14 • Duties on casinos and gaming machines raised

15 • Road Fuel Tax escalator increase brought forward

16 • Tax on company cars increased

17 • Tax relief on foreign earnings abolished

18 • Tax concessions for certain professions abolished

19 • Capital gains tax imposed on certain non-residents

20 • Restriction of Capital Gains Tax relief on reinvestment

21 • Corporation tax payments on account brought forward

22 • Stamp duty increased again

23 • Certain hydrocarbon duties increased

24 • Additional diesel duties introduced

25 • Landfill Tax increased

26 • Double tax credits on certain dividends restricted

 

March 1999

27 • National Insurance Contributions earning limit raised

28 • NI Contributions for self-employed increased

29 • Tax relief of Married Couple's Allowance abolished

30 • MIRAS abolished

31 • Self-employed contractors to pay NI and income tax as if employees

32 • Company car business mileage discount limited

33 • Double escalator on tobacco duties

34 • Insurance Premium Tax increased to 5%

35 • Vocational training relief abolished

36 • Employer NI Contribution base broadened to include all benefits in kind

37 • VAT on some banking services increased

38 • Tax on reverse premiums paid to tenants by landlords introduced

39 • Duty on domestic fuel oils up

40 • Vehicle Excise Duty for lorries increased

41 • Landfill tax escalator introduced

42 • Stamp Duty rates raised again to 2.5/3.5%

 

March 2000

43 • Tobacco duties increased above inflation

44 • Stamp duty raised for 4th time, scope of duty extended

45 • Extra taxation of life assurance companies

46 • Rules on tax havens tightened up

47 • Company car taxes raised

 

2001

The Chancellor gives the exhausted nation a year off – no new stealth taxes!

 

April 2002

48 • Personal tax allowances frozen

49 • National Insurance threshold frozen

50 • NI Contributions for employers raised

51 • NI Contributions for employees raised [Class 1 up 1%]

52 • NI Contributions for self-employed raised

53 • North Sea taxation increased

54 • Duty on some alcoholic drinks raised

55 • Stamp duty thresholds frozen

56 • Tax relief on investment in film industy restricted

57 • Rules on corporate debt tightened

58 • Nil-rate threshold for inheritance tax raised by less than the rate of inflation

 

April 2003

59 • VAT imposed on electronically supplied services

60 • Domestic staff on £89/week to pay NI & income tax, employers to pay NI

61 • Betting duty increases

62 • Tax on red diesel and fuel oil increased

63 • Anti-tax haven rules tightened to cover more UK firms with Irish subsidiaries

64 • Vehicle excise duty raised

65 • Personal tax allowances frozen again

 

July, 2003

66 • £35 added to all fines and £3 added to the cost of a home insurance policy

 

September, 2003

67 • Price of petrol raised 7p per gallon (with the VAT)

 

October, 2003

68 • Up to 8 times increase in the stamp duty on leases for retail premises

69 • Airport Tax doubled

 

December, 2003

70 • 40% extra Council Tax on second homes was sneaked in while the Westminster Wonders were breaking up for their hols a whole week before Xmas.

Additional info : It has been pointed out that a number of councils gave an even bigger discount for second homes and the increase for some people can be 80%. Plus the usual 6-18% annual rise, depending on how bloated the council's operations have become.

Exemptions may be granted if the second home owner (1) has to live somewhere because of his/her employment, (2) the dwelling comes with the job, or (3) there are special threat/security reasons involved. All of which excuses apply to 10, Downing Street, the home of a certain Mr. Anthony B. Liar. (Thanks to M.K.)

 

January, 2004

71 • £60 per day fine for late submission of self-assessment income tax forms

72 • Traffic wardens to receive powers to impose fines for a whole bunch of offences to keep poor people off the roads. The offences will include parking more than 19 inches from the kerb (£100) and dithering by people who are lost over, and who don't know whether to make a turn or keep straight on

73 • A 'Victims Fund' surcharge fine on everyone who passes through the courts. £5 for speeding up to £30 for murder.

74 • Legal Aid for the middle classes abolished

 

February, 2004

75 • £40 per week charge to middle-class parents for formerly free nursery places

76 • £200 per year charge to middle-class parents for places on formerly free school buses

77 • £250 per hour charge from the fire brigade for non-fire-related call-outs, e.g. clearing up after road accidents and rescuing pussy cats from trees

 

March, 2004

78 • £550 tax rise (at standard rate) for people using a company van or people-carrier out of work time

79 • Council Tax will rise at least 7.4% next year (according to the Budget)

80 • The tax incentive for owner-operator small businesses to become companies abolished

81 • Tax on cross-border payments for goods and services between multi-divisional companies extended to transactions within the UK

82 • Tax on trusts up from 34% to 40%

83 • Duty on red diesel up 1p/litre above inflation (57% rise)

84 • Duty on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) used as fuel up 1p/litre above inflation (45% rise)

85 • Personal allowances for taxpayers under 65 frozen

 

April 2004

86 • PEPs and ISAs containing shares lose their tax break on dividends and the annual ISA allowance cut by £2,000 to £5,000

87 • The 100% tax allowance for small businesses & self-employed on new computer/advanced telephone equipment cut to 50% for 2004/5 tax year

88 • Passports – in addition to costing twice as much as the present price of £42, the new 'biometric data' passports will be valid for half as long. They will have to be renewed every 5 years instead of every 10 years, which doubles the cost yet again.

89 • £100 per year 'lighthouse tax' on small boats over 8 metres long. Commerial shipping lines think they should pay £2.6 million per year towards the annual £73 million cost of maintaining lighthouses and navigational equipment.

 

May 2004

90 • Council Tax bills to rise a further £110 in the affected areas to pay for 'Two Jags' Prescott's regional assemblies

[JonCris]

Yup Dave The credit crunch has little to do with dodgy mortgages if you analyse the figures it's more to do with the spiralling cost of living.

 

Most people have been borrowing just to live not to finance extravagant life styles as the banks & this government would have us believe thereby justifying the interest rate hikes at a time of the consumers greatest need but simply to maintain their obscene profits & bonuses

[Guest Gertie100]

Yep this is what the most annoying thing is:

 

Both myself and my husband work full time. We both earn decent money - him more decent than me I will admit!!

We both drive, my car is 7 years old and hubbie's is 11 years old.

 

I smoke a little bit (although trying to give up)

We drink a little bit - literally a bottle of wine on Friday and Saturday night.

We do not dress head to toe in designer gear, we do not pay out anything a month over and above what we HAVE to pay, apart from £21 per month to Sky cos we all love our TV, a treat you could say...:o

 

But we have no spare cash at all, nada, nothing.

We have economised all we can - energy suppliers etc, yes we are going on holiday on Sunday, the first for 3 years, mostly because we are soooo peed off we needed to do something which will cheer us up!

 

Don't get me wrong, there are people who are a lot worse off than we are: and I don't want to get into a peeing contest with anyone, but pretty soon we aren't going to be able to afford the diesel to get to work.

 

Where does the government think people are going to get their money from??

It can't carry on, and I have been racking my brains trying to work out what can be done about it...shame there's no oil in South Wales....

 

Rant over thank you all!

[JonCris]

Yep this is what the most annoying thing is:

 

Both myself and my husband work full time. We both earn decent money - him more decent than me I will admit!!

We both drive, my car is 7 years old and hubbie's is 11 years old.

 

I smoke a little bit (although trying to give up)

We drink a little bit - literally a bottle of wine on Friday and Saturday night.

We do not dress head to toe in designer gear, we do not pay out anything a month over and above what we HAVE to pay, apart from £21 per month to Sky cos we all love our TV, a treat you could say...:o

 

But we have no spare cash at all, nada, nothing.

We have economised all we can - energy suppliers etc, yes we are going on holiday on Sunday, the first for 3 years, mostly because we are soooo peed off we needed to do something which will cheer us up!

 

Don't get me wrong, there are people who are a lot worse off than we are: and I don't want to get into a peeing contest with anyone, but pretty soon we aren't going to be able to afford the diesel to get to work.

 

Where does the government think people are going to get their money from??

It can't carry on, and I have been racking my brains trying to work out what can be done about it...shame there's no oil in South Wales....

 

Rant over thank you all!

 

The answer is immigrate:cry:

[Lula]

LOL shouldnt that be milch cows?

 

saying that though, for the brit going over the pond, the exchange rate is brill, pound to the euro is pretty crap and I dont know what they are complaining about, they should have out petrol and diesel prices

[Guest Gertie100]

JonCris - thought about it many times to be honest, but I can't bear the thought of leaving my family and denying my girlie her grandparents, aunties and uncles...

[JonCris]

Take em with you - many do

[dave]

The thought has crossed my mind many times, but my kids and their mum would have to come too. Not sure that my girlfriend would be too happy about the ex coming with us (although she'd love to have the kids!)

 

I had to sell my car as despite earning more money in my day job than anyone I know, I simply could no longer afford to keep it legal and run it to get to work at the same time. Now I have to spend a lot longer at work and wait for one of the shift workers to finish work and drive me home for half the fuel costs. So now, I spend less time with my family and work longer for no extra pay.

 

I too have not had a holiday in as long as I can remember - the only way I could see of enjoying myself was to sell my house, take the equity and literally p**s it up the wall....and that's what I intend to do.

 

We had to get rid of the TV, a) because it broke (lol), b) couldn't afford the tax and c) every time I turned it on, it was full of canned-laughing-americans laughing at something that had no humour in it.

 

Got given a new one, but now we only watch films on the xbox.

 

Anyway, basically we cut back very hard - and it's made little difference. It's been this way for a lot of people for at least the last 12 months - and yet, I couldn't understand how people were bleating on about how strong the economy was etc...

 

anyway /rant

[Guest Gertie100]

And to top it all off, our fixed mortgage ends at the end of June and I am just hoping that Nationwide can offer us something that doesn't cost us more than £100 per month...I really am deluded aren't I!

[dave]

100 quid a month - wooooaaahhh, I wish my mortgage was only 10 times that! I'd be happy with that!

[Bookworm]

I think Gertie meant £100 MORE a month than what they're paying now.

 

Same here, fixed rate ends in July and I am dreading what the new rate will be like. Last year, when we were discussing it, we were talking of increasing payments so as to cut at least 1 year, maybe even 2 or 3... Now it looks as if we'll just have to batten the hatches and hope for the best.

[dave]

My discounted rate ended a couple of years ago.

 

How come everyone's is ending at the same time - I read about it on the BBC but didn't understand it then.

[Castlebest]

My fixed rate finished last year and I had to change the mortgage to interest only, I'm now paying more in interest only than I was for the full repayment and I wont own the house at the end of the mortgage term.

 

Fortunately Baldric has a plan

[Guest Gertie100]

dave - did you know that you are one of best when it comes to conveying sarcasm through the written word!

 

Of course I meant £100 more per month! Although research is showing more like £250...

Deffo batten down the hatches...we were going to do the same this time and try to reduce the length of our mortgage, now its all we can do to try and make sure we keep the roof over our heads!

 

As far as I see it (and I know nothing), when the market was more buoyant approx 2/3 years ago people pushed themselves to take on larger mortgages. However as the amounts borrowed were larger more people took out discounted / fixed rates set for 2/3 years to ensure they could repay. Hence why I believe this year is set to be the "big one" for repos and generally people getting into trouble with their finances.

 

Dave - didn't you remortgage when your discounted rate ran out?

[Guest Gertie100]

Castlebest - don't you see it as a temporary thing though?

[Castlebest]

Has to be temporary and if Baldric's plan fails then I hope the cardboard box under the canal bridge will be temporary too

[Guest Gertie100]

Although depending on where you are we could have semi-detached cardboard boxes under the canal bridge!

[Castlebest]

I honestly think there will be a housing crisis in the next few months/years with more families becoming homeless and none of the councils having any housing stock now to cope.

[dave]

Nope - was tied in for 5 years (although my paperwork says 2!! the copy from the SAR says 5 - and the S.A Broker has fled the country with hundreds of people's passports, but that's a different story!), then my ex buggered off with the kids and on my own I cannot afford to borrow the amount that I need to keep the house - i.e. the mortgage is more than 3.5 times my income.

[dave]

I honestly think there will be a housing crisis in the next few months/years with more families becoming homeless and none of the councils having any housing stock now to cope.

 

Yes, so do I.

 

No investment in social housing for years, everyone encouraged to indebt themselves to the greed of the banking industry and further pushed on by looking at people who bought houses in the last housing market, ahem 'slow down' and made a small packet from selling their house (and council house - which I don't have much problem with, provided they are market value and the proceeds go on to provide more housing, which of course, didn't happen) - all of which has created a pretty sorry mess which we will be mopping up for a fair few years to come.

[Castlebest]

Also the buy to let bubble is looking a bit shaky, a lot of the private BTL landlords are selling up and getting out