The Collapse of Trust in an Unfair Society

Nobody seems to trust anyone in our country anymore. At least that is what is implied in the heavy-handed regulation of our country. Increasingly we are called upon to prove who we are and where we live.

Recently I was asked to become a trustee for a youth organisation in our town which had just acquired its own premises. I had to provide not only photo identification (my passport) but something to prove that I lived where I do (a utility bill), so that the organisation could register me as a trustee.

I have just been told by my employers that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs now demand that every single journey I make in my vehicle for business purposes has to be logged separately. So, instead of totalling my short mileage trips by recording the start mileage at the beginning of the day and the finish mileage at the end of the day and submitting a daily total. I must record the start and finish mileage every trip – no matter how short and submit them all. If I go to one place and then on to another in the same trip, I must mention both places. Why? Because HMRC doesn't trust me. The irony is that they take my word that a particular trip was for a business purpose but not that the five short journeys I may make in a day are.

The unfair thing is that they haven't moved the mileage limit which is allowed for tax purposes for the last eight years. They reckon that it doesn't cost anymore to run a car now than it did eight years ago! So, I am allowed 25p per mile tax free (up to 10000 miles per year) but if my employer wants to pay me 30p per mile, because of increases in road tax, insurance and fuel, then HMRC tax me on the difference of 5p per mile. And they have the effrontery to ask me to log every journey separately!

Where can I resign my citizenship, Mr Darling?

Carbon Footprints

Oh the delicious irony of it all! On the BBC News at 6pm yesterday there was a feature on the miles our food travels to reach us, with much agonising over shipping chilled cherries from Chile. Just a few minutes later we saw houses ablaze with decorative lights – and we were invited to send in pictures of local examples. So much for carbon footprints.

Yes, carbon use is important but you cannot focus on just one aspect of our carbon emissions; it is a total lifestyle thing.

For the record I have flown twice in my life – once in 1974 (Wick to Shetland and back) and again in 2004 (Aberdeen to Heathrow and back). I doubt if I'll bother again. My total annual car mileage (including business use) is about 12000 miles. I have a caravan which I use to holiday within 50 miles of my home. No queues, no hassle, very restful. I recycle and compost as much of my waste as possible. My wife and I are vegetarians.

Pay As You Go

So, a parliamentary committee recommends that political parties should not be able to nominate for directly for peerages, in an attempt to rebuild trust with the electorate. But surely the question of trust must address the funding of political parties.

For trust to be rebuilt it must become impossible for anyone to buy influence. The only way to do this is to fund political parties from the public purse and ban all political fund-raising activities. The only additinal funding allowed would be membership subscriptions.

Then "he who pays the piper calls the tune" would be the order of the day. Perhaps that might bring us a bit nearer to democracy.

For the record, I belong to no political party, nor do I support any. No one represents me, though I do have an MP and MSP; I speak for myself.

The Lost Post

Suddenly it seems that everything our government departments and councils send out is liable to go missing. At least that is what it seems like from a media perspective – and it's all the fault of politicians!

It's this obsessively focused "investigative" reporting which creates inordinate focus on single issues, by blowing them up into meganews, that makes it so difficult for any politician – of any persuasion to do his or her job.

What about the responsibility of the carriers who were supposed to be undertaking safe delivery of the items? What about the responsibility of the mailing departments? No one seems to be blaming them!

But then we are all human beings – we all make mistakes, we all have "off" days; but in our society mistakes are things other people make (and shouldn't).

Perhaps in our so-called tolerant society we need to learn to be a bit less critical of each other and a bit more tolerant of other people's mistakes.

A New Beginning

This blog is born out of frustration.
Frustration at a media that tells me what to think and decides what is important. A media that rams its agenda down my throat ad nauseam and so has no room for anything else. A media that invites my comments but only on topics it considers important. A media that is urban-oriented.

I don't live in a city: I don't want to live in a city.
I don't do social life but I do believe in society.

So in this blog I aim to do two things.
I aim to interact with what is presented in the "news" with my own comments on items I want to comment on.
I also aim to reflect on society around me.

That means this blog may seem political but it is not party political.
I am not looking for responses and I won't respond to them.