A New Year

It is tennish and barring my sleeping 6 month old daughter I am all alone; my wife is currently being bandied around a hospital ward, hungry and in a great deal of pain with an abscess and I've been up since 5.30 with my daughter; barring one small visit from Sis at midnight to split a bottle of Cava I'm going to bed.

But first as is the custom to reflect on the year and to resolve to do things differently I will outline my hopes and dreams for the tennies (or whatever the snappy martketing guy who coins such terms for decadel shifts calls it).

This year has been a medley of contradictions; I have moved to a job I thought was more secure and a step up only for it to be ripped from under me by circumstance, I have become a father and embarked on the most extraordinarily fantastic and expensive adventure mankind has ever endured with no job, no immeadiate prospects and little money, and more extraordinary still I have not wanted for anything throughout this holiday season, either for myself or for my family proper; barring my wife's illness it has been brilliant and blessed.

My hopes for 2010 are thus tied with my own aspirations for a better life for me and my family and my resolutions; first I want, even if it kills me trying, to get debt free- mortgage and student loans notwithstanding; I am fed up of the monkeys on my back and the privelege of paying for them.

Second I would like to find what it is I am supposed to be doing with my life and then cling on to it with all my effort; heck, I'd take a silver medal on completing this goal if only to know how to reach gold next year.

Third, and as I've said these are all selfish, personal items, that more people know what it is to be a libertarian; the most veils-fall-from-eyes of the last decade has been to be able to put a name to my ideas and observations of the ills of this world (of which, and I am trying not to sound too fauwning, a big part of which comes down to my discovery of blogging and in particular The Devils Kitchen; I know I am not alone in this). I will endevour to put the message out as clear as I am able and challenge inaccuracies and deliberately flippant and disengenuous misrepresentations.

Fourth is linked to my third resolution to write at least one new fair use of words posts each week and cite the weekly examples of this; perhaps the most powerful, certainly the most insidious, actions of the collectivist is the misuse and abuse of language to warp the meaning of words, and ultimately the thoughts of those stuck with them; it is here that the battle over freedom will be won or lost.

Lastly to coin a new law on the use of comparatives: Godwin's law for the Nazi's has served quite well in dissuading the swivel eyed loons and trolls on the web for decades.

Hence Tomrat's Law will apply with another oft abused zeitgeist; George Orwell's 1984. The fight for our language is a good and necessary thing; referring to every little infringement on our privacy as being like "something out of 1984" belittles what Orwell was really trying to say, and lowers the tone of debate to that of the Daily Fail.

That said I wish you all a unconditional happy new and prosperous new year.

Quote of the Day

'I did buy a new Alfa Romeo recently, but we needed it because the BMW was old.'

Family on £23,000 worth of tax free benefits from this article. (H/T to the ever brilliant Leg-Iron)

To be earning that kind of money in the real world after taxes one of them would have to be earning at least £33,000 or both would need to earn £16,000, though to pay for childcare at ~£600/month you'd need £40,000 from one or £19,000 each.

People are getting tired of paying for peoples inability to keep their legs closed, or at the very least wear a condom.*

*more to follow...

Tweet of the Day

"RT @BevaniteEllie : RT @wesstreeting: Polly Toynbee said what I wanted to say better than I could. That's why she's a Guardian columnist..."

-- Post From My iPhone

Thoughts On Benefits & A Living Wage

Currently I work in a field not unrelated to benefits and it has got me thinking about possible solution.

First let us state a few facts:

1. Barring massive funding and MSM airplay LPUK is unlikely to get the momentum it needs to win seats and push it's zero income tax policies into law.
2. Currently income tax receipts are now outstripped by the cost of our benefits system.
3. Corporate tax, VAT and all the other forms of sales taxes that are more the product of the deranged minds of exchequers from the last 2 centuries with far too much time on their hands are, whilst regressive, currently more than sufficient income for a government exercising it true reasons for existence; e.g. Provision of some public goods, defence of the realm etc.
4. Libertarians (the majority of) want a situation where we move ultimately to low/no taxation but ultimately to self-determination and responsibility; hence the existence of LPUK as a political body to meet the transition to a libertarian future.

Now let's say for one way of guaranteeing this transition and stopping the elderly, the poor and the feckless from dying in the streets we need to rely on a benefit system gauranteeing some income in ways in which private charity or private insurance cannot: how much income? The Adam Smith institute have set out various figures for taxation and, more importantly a guaranteed tax free income of £12000, currently just under twice the current level. For reasoms that should become clear my tax free income (remember, under a non-LPUK government,) is £15000.

Now my idea; imagine your tax free income as a tradeable commodity redeemable against any type of tax receipt. You could use it yourself and instantly keep £15000 of your income completely tax free; couples could have one stay at home parent or who works part time and they could offset the remaining tax free income against their partners income or the unemployed could trade this with brokers within companies trying to lower their companies corpration tax take (hence a slightly higher rate than the ASI's to account for the difference offered). Combined with a flat tax and a robust National Insurance Scheme so tax receipts are more easily traceable and quantified this would enable the benefits system to be abolished over night; extending it indefinately to all beyond the age of 16 (with tapered tax free incomes up to that age) could mean we could eventually wind down our state pension liabilities over time also.

At a stroke we have abolished welfare, set state pensions in permanent decline, encouraged personal responsibilty, voluntary community and increased the fairness of welfare; and best of all we've removed the need for vastly complicated state intervention and the incentive for favouring lifestyle choices by complex tax breaks/benefits to choice groups a la NuLabour single mums/Glasgow East or Tory yummy mums/Surrey.

What do people think?

One Thing Is Certainly Apt Though...

At the beginning of the 38degree Ed Miliband phone in a representative of the StopClimateChaos coalition was given a platform to advertise a protest in London known as http://www.stopclimatechaos.org/the-wave>"The Wave".

Apt considering this:

The setting of the book is Gordon High School in 1969. The plot of the book revolves around a history teacher (Mr. Ben Ross), his high school students, and an experiment he conducts in an attempt to teach them about how it may have been living in Nazi Germany. Unsatisfied with his own inability to answer his students' earnest questions of how and why, Mr Ross initiates the experiment in hopes that it answers the question of why the Germans allowed Adolf Hitler and the genocidal Nazi Party to rise to power, acting in a manner inconsistent with their own pre-existing moral values. Ben starts by having his history class sit up straight and obey his commands by, at first, standing at attention beside their desks and having to say "Mr. Ross..." before asking or answering questions. After seeing the students' reactions toward the experiment, he decides to continue it the next day by creating a salute, a symbol and addressing three mottoes he made up: "Strength through discipline, Strength through community, Strength through action." He calls this movement "The Wave". At first, students are sceptical about The Wave, but after seeing how everyone becomes equal, and that the stress of making choices is lifted, the class falls into The Wave, and begins to recruit others into it. Robert, the class reject, seems to have changed the most due to The Wave - his physical appearance becomes neater and the students grow to accept him more. He becomes more outgoing and seems to be accepted in this new society.

Laurie, a student in Mr. Ross' class, starts to think that The Wave is having too much of an impact. A huge majority of the school is in The Wave, and its members attack students who refuse to join. Using her influence as the school newspaper editor, Laurie releases an entire issue of The Grapevine dedicated to showing the dangers of The Wave. While some thank her, especially teachers and parents, others do not. Laurie's boyfriend David, who has been in The Wave since the beginning, tries to get her to stop bad-mouthing The Wave. He eventually shoves her to the ground and this makes him realize how dangerous The Wave really is. After David realizes what he's done, he and Laurie go to Mr. Ross' house in order to convince him to terminate the program.

After talking with Laurie and David, as well as his wife, Christy, who is also a teacher at the school, Ross realizes that The Wave has taken a turn for the worse, and he is determined to stop it. However, he wants to do so in a way that communicates the lesson he intended The Wave to teach in the first place. He calls a Wave meeting in the auditorium and requests that only Wave members be present. They gather in a similar fashion to the Nazi rallies, even equipped with banners and armbands emblazoned with the Wave logo.

Ben tells The Wave members that they are only one in many schools across the nation that is involved in the Wave, and that they are about to see the leader of the whole organization and that he is going to speak to all of them on television to create an International Wave Party for Youths. Everyone is shocked when Mr. Ross reveals that there is no leader, and that there is no International Wave Party. However, Mr. Ross tells the audience that if there were a leader, it would be the man on the projection screen - Adolf Hitler. He explains how their obedience led them to act like Nazis.

The shocked students drop all their Wave-branded trinkets and items, and slowly leave the gym. As Ben turns to leave, the one person who really flourished in the Wave, Robert Billings, is standing alone, upset that The Wave ended. During The Wave, he was finally accepted as an equal, no one picked on him, he had friends, but his new-found social status is now worthless without The Wave. Mr. Ross tries to cheer him up by commenting on his tie and suit, and they walk out together to grab a bite to eat.

At the risk of invoking Godwin's law I cannot think of a more appropriate title to this demonstration.

The Greenwash continues apace

Just got off the 38 degrees teleconference with Ed Miliband prior to his trip to Cop-out-hagen; an excellent display of debate-framing and cronyism.

I'll post more on it later but for now the web chat is an interesting place to go - brought out all sorts of extreme left trash, anti-growth and depopulationists; quite chilling.

Do go see.

Aunty Grudgingly Picks Up Climate Gate

So Aunty Beeb finally picks up on ClimateGate- reads like an apologists arguement for witch burning.

My comment on the HYS thread:

The authors of the emails and data represent the main arm of the IPCC's scientific authority; if there message is compromised then the IPCC can close up shop.

What are the chances the IPCC. a body set to look for a problem that just simply. isn't. there. will not find in favour of a group that justifies there existence?

Answers on a postcard...

-- Post From My iPhone

ClimateGate & Witches

In my youth I read the first few books of the Horrible History series on different periods through British history; one piece of history that always amused me was the Witch trials during the middle ages, particularly the dumb ways they used to determine if you were in league with Lucifer.

My favourite was the one in which a person was bound and tossed into a deep river/lake the result was determined thus:

1. If you floated, Satan as your master wanted you alive and was keeping you afloat to save you for all the nefarious deeds you could acomplish shortly before they dragged you to a stake and burnt you as a witch.

Or/

2. You didn't float and drowned, safe in the knowledge that you weren't a witch (doubly important, as I later found out, because your few posessions would be taken from your family and split between the accuser/crown/witchfinder general).

It occurs to me that this has many parallels with the current hysteria surrounding Anthropogenic Global Warming; what remains of the relatively free market has now been accussed of the modern day equivalent of "magic", and in a fit of fear, encouraged by the feckless and useless looters that occupy positions of power for their own gain, is being tossed into a sea of regulations, laws and curbs on behaviour, whose sole intent is to kill it; proving it's righteous credentials once it is damaged beyond repair.

If it survives, adapting to the rules, the regulashoons and curbs on behaviour to remain the most effective means of raising the quality of life in ways it's detractors could never achieve, the outcry from the righteous (TM Leg-Iron) would be so great, their power so amassed through fear and ignorance they would drag what remains to the fire.

What is a certainty with the latest travesty of justice and reason revealed with the ClimateGate scandal is that this "devilish magic" that our capitalist, consumerist society is being accused of is to the best anyone can credibly claim, a minor, almost insignificant, inconvenience; attempts to make them fess up has led to the above witch trials, now revealed for the nonsense rent seeking it truly is.

This is why ClimateGate is so important and I shudder to think what will happen if the witchfinder generals win.