Politicians: What Do they Do For You? Ar They Worth Your Vote?

 There was a time when you felt politicians were trying to make your life better.

Labour would major on worker's rights and the Conservatives would lower taxes.

But over the decades, there seems to have been a disconnect between the goals of the politicians and the desires of the voters.

Now it seems that minority agendas have replaced working to better the lives of the majority and corporate demands outweight the demands of the public.

Right now we are in the grip of the worst cost of living crisis in 50 years or more. Even at the height of the seventies inflation spiral, it was never like this. Of course the government caused this by allowing the printing of excess money. It always leads to inflation eventually. Many clever people think they can control it, but they can't.

But what are the government doing to help in this crisis? Tinker round the edges. 

Today saw the highest single rise in fuel prices for decades. Right now the government must be raking in tax revenue on fuel. Duty is charged as a percentage of the net price and then 20% VAT is added on top of the price of the fuel and the duty combined. Yes, you're paying tax charged on tax applied to the price of the fuel.

So the higher the price of fuel, the more tax the government earns. What they could do is set a target for the tax revenue from fuel, rather than have this windfall and instead taper off the duty the higher the price gets. The government still get the revenue they projected and the consumer pays less tax than they would have, easing the burden. Win-Win. Basically the government give the consumer a windfall directly by not taking tax.

Reducing duty on fuel will have a knock-on reduction in shop prices as the fuel is cheaper. 

I do wonder why they don't do it. We need help now as fuel creeps quickly to £2 a litre. I already downsized my car a couple of months ago as the previous one was costing £100 a week in fuel to get to work. My current little hatchback with an engine half the size looks like it will be costing the same amount quite soon.

If it carries on I'll be priced out of commuting the 7 miles to and from work in a few weeks.