The government has facilitated frauds and tax dodges running into tens of billions of pounds ‘The UK economy is in dire straits. It has the highest level of reported government fraud, the highest level of taxation for 70 years, and the biggest decline in living standards since WW2’
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And as in the USA nothing will happen. No consequences , no changes in law, nothing…..
> Frauds and waste isn’t just due to the pandemic. During 2019-20, some £29.3bn-£52bn was lost to frauds. HMRC says that it fails to collect around £35bn of taxes each year due to fraud, evasion, avoidance and errors. Other models put the annual tax loss at between £58.6bn and £122bn. This means that since 2010, taxes of between £400bn and £1,500bn have not been collected. HMRC is handicapped by poor laws and lack of resources.
Imagine the embarrassment of voting for your local Conservative representative.
That’s assuming that Conservative voters know how to experience embarrassment.
The British Empire doing what it’s always done. Exploit and impoverish, militarise and vilify.
But, the Tory donors are better off than ever, so all is good in their world
And yet the Tory boris fan boi’s continue to beat one off over the idiot.
The tories have just saved a local bus route (according to a leaflet that just came through the door), so I’m pretty sure the old people will keep voting for them!
All part of the plan, feather their nests whilst “you’ll own nothing and be happy” is implemented
But the tax avoidance is all legal.. lets not discuss cronyism either, just get back into your cold house and don’t eat.
Advocates for foodbank enjoyers. /s
This is not even an exaggeration or hyperbole either.
The UK is utterly fucked.
Your kids will rent forever, spending 70% of their income on housing and utilities, have no opportunity to retire, have no decent access to healthcare or a dentist and literally “own nothing”. It will all be leased or on credit that they can’t afford. They will work their entire lives for peanuts to service those “debts” and die younger than you.
Get out while you can, if you can..
I know we often pull out stats to show that Britain is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. As I walked to the corner shop yesterday and looked at the blocked street drains and remembered the cyclists complaints about potholes, I thought we are living a lie.
Bizarrely some Tory supporters have crawled out of the woodwork here too to make inane comments about how they can’t understand why people don’t give Boris credit for how he’s handling Ukraine. Fuck off, he’s LOVING it. It’s his ultimate fantasy and distracts idiots from all the pain and suffering his feckless political choices are causing.
The conservative way ✨
And to think, a large portion of the UK population *wanted* this
Even if Labour were to regain power in ‘24, it would take miracles from powers humans didn’t know existed to reverse the mess the tories have caused.
Sometimes I do believe this is a test to see how much they can really get away with before the country storms Parliament. Prove me wrong, but this nation is far too incompetent to even fight for changes in the system.
They’d take the piss and raise petrol to £3/L and every car owner will just huff & puff. Typical “Oh well, that’s just how it is” mentality.
I’ve been saying it for years, but 10 years of Tory rule and Brexit are going to do wonders for the UK art scene. It’ll be nice to see a 21st century version of the punk revolution
And then the tories blame the lack of money on having to pay for students and disability benefits
That title reads like the description of a third world dictatorship.
To much time and money is spent on benefit fraud rather they investigate the honest business men evading paying taxes on their true earnings which cost the country more in unpaid taxes
A failure in leadership, a failure in management and a total failure to uphold any form of professionalism except in failure, is a mark of all the modern politicians!
They are just irresponsible, Irrespective of Party, politics, colour, creed or religion, sex or sexuality! Or even Country!
The sense of country-wide sad resignation is down to the failure of the opposition to offer a better future.
We are probably around 12months from a general election now, yet what significant difference will there be under Labour?
No shit Sherlock. People were pointing out what bullshit Brexit was and what lying cunts Boris and his cronies are for a reason.
We live in a sad time where a social media influencer saying something wrong is world shifting and where multi billion dollar frauds are just another silly side show. A politician lies to its people, that’s politics. A streamer lies to its followers, it’s shameful.
Mass shootings get ignored as just an unavoidable consequence of freedom meanwhile our freedom to own our own devices is diminishing before our very eyes with only but a few taking notice.
anybody heard of vertical farming? how much food is it possible to grow in Buckingham palace?
Yes but the Tories are financially responsible…. With their money. The biggest rug pull they ever managed was Thatcher convincing everyone that social politicians spend high money with high taxation. When in the last 100 years it has always been the Tories guilty of this. People have to wake up and realise that culture wars a red scaring is all in an effort to turn you into a disposable asset.
And yet, come next election, voters will turn out in droves to vote for the Tories again because, “just imagine if it was Labour!”
This country is an embarrassment and we only have ourselves to blame.
I find articles like this difficult to read, because it really does make the conservative government seem like they are actively trying to fuck up the country. But when it is published on a website called left foot forward it does make me wonder if it could be biased.
When Prem Sikka (who has some really impressive credentials) says things like:
“Frauds and waste isn’t just due to the pandemic. During 2019-20, some £29.3bn-£52bn was lost to frauds.”
That number seems mind boggling and makes you think that the government has really lost the plot. But when you go back, and look at the same number for 2010 it’s £25bn.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/249252/NFA_Smarter_Government_Report.pdf
Again, when she says:
HMRC says that it fails to collect around £35bn of taxes each year due to fraud, evasion, avoidance and errors.
When you look at 2010 the tax gap figure is £30bn, which I’d imagine is pretty comparable to the £35bn after inflation.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1016776/Measuring_tax_gaps_tables_2021_edition.xlsx
I guess I’m just really tired of being misled and lied to by all the politicians (conservative and labour), who just clearly think we’re morons who don’t check things.
Maybe the messaging is right, and Prem is making great points, but I find it hard to trust the article.
It’s taken the Tories 12 years to do a lifetime worth of damage to this country. Well done to all the thick racist Tory voters that have sent this country back decades.
Where can you go after brexit though? I wonder if that was intentional
The pandemic was a once in a century event. Shutting down the economy and paying people to stay at home was an unprecedented move, but similar decisions were taken by a lot of countries. As an economist and statistician, I think a more valid way to analyse these decisions will be to compare our economy to others, rather than to compare the current year to past years. As the name of this site suggests, they’re activists and not journalists.
This is happening in all major democracies. The crooked fucks have run these countries into the ground.
This is what happens when you allow Eton pricks to run the country. Yes, I fucking said it.
B-But Borris went to Kiev so you can’t criticise him now! Like how David Cameron pretended to drive a truck to Poland to deliver aid though he doesn’t have a license to drive a truck.
That what happens when you let Bullingdon Club thugs rule the country.
Welcome, to Tory Britain.
They also conned 17 *million* people into applying economic sanctions on themselves. The other 49 million are being dragged into the quagmire against their will.
American here: neoliberalism created this situation on purpose. Thatcher for you, Reagan for us.