Now you know I said I’d probably have a rant today, well you would if you’d read yesterday’s blog. Anyway someone must have heard me because today I got my council tax bill. I’m sorry HOW MUCH! £600 and that includes 25% discount, no there must be some mistake I think you have me confused with the Duke of Fucking Westminster. I live in what is comically called a studio flat which basically means you have a door and 4 walls and anything inside is your own lookout. A 14.9% rise for the Plod, for what? About the only thing that has gone up by more than the tax for the Plod is the percentage of bloody burglaries. £555 for the county council, what am I paying for here, the annual rent on the Guildhall?
If I wasn’t paying so much in tax I could probably afford to live somewhere more salubrious where the council tax might be worth paying.

I mean with a name like redbaron I’m quite happy to pay tax,I’m a die-hard commie pinko, I support the state taxation system wholeheartedly but it has to be done right and it isn’t currently. I mean as an example the income tax. I pay my standard rate for a few years, now I used to have a company car which you get taxed on, my company claim that they submitted the forms, the Inland Revenue say they never knew of this and therefore they slam me with a £900 tax bill. When I ring them up to speak to them to ask wtf they tell me, and this is good, that effectively I have benefited from a tax free loan up to now that I now have to pay back! A tax free loan that I didn’t know I had and hadn’t asked for, a tax free loan the fucking Inland Revenue didn’t know I’d had, and a tax free loan my company would have been too stupid to fucking figure out that I’d had even if it had been staring them in the face. Who loses ultimately -me I get to pay emergency tax for years until the money is paid off, who is to blame well the only person not to blame is the person who has to bloody pay it back, bastards!

OK now I’m just getting started, what about all the government spiel about the environment, and it’s not just this lot, the last bunch of wankers spouted the same bollocks and they were largely to blame for much of the shite in the first place. Integrated transport policy -integrated with what? Industry that’s what, let’s not piss the companies off and we’ll be ok. You want an integrated transport policy how about taxing poeple off the roads including the bloody lorries and use all, that’s right all, the money to pump into public transport infrastructure. Integrate electric intercity rail services with a system of local electric trams and trolley buses and gas buses for the more difficult to reach areas, rural branch lines where possible and park and ride systems on various points of urban density to facilitate commuter traffic. It’s not exactly rocket science and I’m hardly the Minister for Transport so what’s the problem…? “We can’t afford it…” Bullshit! When asked about the money available for the war Gordon Brown said “However much it takes” why, because apparently Iraq was a threat to the UK. I’ll tell you a threat to the UK this fucking place becoming the US with idiots in cars making stupid journey’s in huge gas guzzling 4x4s and MPVs sat in 6 lane highways all going nowhere, and all pumping sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere to haunt future generations. That’s a bloody threat and it’s actually a real one. These idiots all fighting over a resource which is going to run out anyway rather than channeling resources into finding a replacement so that everyone can get on with it by adjusting gradually now rather than totally later.

On a lighter note, literally I am now sporting my summer haircut which basically just means sides shaved to get rid of the greying sideburns. It’s a bit draughty at the mo’ but hopefully it’ll warm up in the next couple of weeks. The pony tail remains intact and I’m still struggling to get my tache to look the same on both sides as I currently look like Salvador Dali with one side twirling and one side straight down.