Gobsmacked...

So the spending review came and went and in the next few months, the cut backs are going to happily chomp away. People will have to work until the age of 66, child benefit has been unfairly cut as has Housing Benefit and all local councils budgets – which are responsible for essential services within the community. Unless we want to - or have the time - some of us are going to have to run our own libraries and housing schemes for free, but hey, it’s Big Society, so it’s okay, right?

Despite pre-election pledges to the contrary, prison numbers are going to fall, as are police numbers, student fees are going to rocket, over half a million public sector workers are going to lose their jobs and due to an 8% cut in the budget for the Ministry of Defence, 42,000 service personnel are going to be out on their ear as well. But according to Cameron and Osborne, we’re all in this together, sharing the pain, thanks to the economic mismanagement of the last Labour government. (Although you’ll notice that they usually keep quiet about the fact that up until the collapse of the world economy in 2008 when UK debt was 1% of GDP, both the Tories and the Lib Dems matched Labour’s spending, pound for pound, but sshhhh!)

The tiresome blame game aside, everyone agrees that something has to be done and it’s not going to be pretty. Everyone is going to be worse off until things better. Aren’t they?

Well no. Whilst everyone has to shoulder VAT increases, reduced services, rising unemployment and public sector pay freezes, others are getting away with murder – thanks to THIS government.

Step forward Vodafone, whose channelling of profits through a Luxembourg based company in an attempt to avoid paying BILLIONS in taxes was last year declared to be a breach of tax avoidance rules. Almost immediately after the election, the Exchequer cancelled almost the entire tax bill the company was due to pay and then said that Vodafone COULD GO ON with its tax evading shenanigans. In the words of a revenue official, it was ‘an unbelievable cave in.’ The cost in lost tax? SIX BILLION QUID. Then – STRANGELY – within days of bending over to Vodafone, Osborne hops on a plane to India where he was promoting Vodafone. Just think of what that sort of money could do for the UK economy and its citizens. I don't know about you, but I reckon the six billion (and counting) would go a long way to easing some of the social pain all round. We all have to pay tax, so why not Vodafone? If the government closed the tax loop holes, it is estimated that we'd get EIGHTEEN billion back. Makes you think...

You can’t axe and tax the rest of society and then slip rich companies massive baubles. And they wonder why the students are going on the rampage?

ROAR!