One thing I hadn’t noticed in much of the budget coverage was that the idea to charge a 50p a month tax for having a telephone line, to fund rural broadband is alive and well (hat tip The Register). Though only if Labour win another term, or if the Tories decide it’s a wizard wheeze to take more money off us. Of course once they do you can bet it will be as temporary a tax measure as VAT is.
Meanwhile Letters from a Tory picks up on some news that has been over shadowed by the budget. The proposed ban on smoking in cares being put forward by the Royal college of Physicians has been excellently dealt with by LegIron. However if you can somehow bring yourself to ignore this huge attempt at encroaching onto private space (not something that should be ignored by any account) the other worrying thing that lept out at me was the idea that this would “see children … shielded from the sight of adults smoking”
The size of wedge that could be the thin end of is staggering. Once that wedge is in smoking on the street or anywhere a child might somehow see you would be right out, and after smoking what other “undesirable” activity would be safe from future legislation. They’ll be compiling a black list (or new versions but a black list would be cheaper) of every book, film, play and TV show that shows smoking in anyway and slapping an 18 certificate on it. Followed by an outright ban the moment some spotty teen finds his dads stash of smoking videos and accidentally gets a small burn/horrific scar from playing with the lighter found next to them.
But to finish on a lighter note government cut backs could see 25 per cent of charities fold. Where by charities we’re really talking about state funded bodies not charities that actually depend on people voluntarily giving them money. Yes this will no doubt affect vulnerable people, and even impact those much vaunted “front line services” that Labour have promised they’ll protect. But they’ll be able to deny it all as these charities aren’t run by them (honest). You can probably safely bet that it will be charities that actually do something useful that will be affected first, and not those that spend our money lobbying the government to tell us what to do.
