Taxes, Taxes, Taxes
Over the last few months the cost of living seems to have increased dramatically, my car wont go as far on ?10 of petrol, my heating bill gets bigger and bigger and every time I go for my food shopping they seem to add another zero to the figure. What is going on? Is this how it is going to be forever?
While many are blaming the current government for the pain we are all feeling in the UK at the moment, it cannot all be pinned onto Gordon Brown?s lapel ? although he has not helped the situation. The price of oil has spiralled since we got involved in the Gulf War and the War on Terror and against a back drop of falling oil resources there seems little likelihood of it dropping too far in the short term. So how does this affect the whole economy?
Transport costs seemingly make up a massive part of the cost of food on the supermarket shelves and while companies such as Tesco will try to push their suppliers to the limit on price, even they cannot get blood out of a stone. As direct transport costs continue to rise it is us, the poor UK taxpayer, who actually pays the price with the cost of essentials such as bread and milk seemingly increasing in price each month. So where will it all end?
Unfortunately, unless there is a collapse in the price of oil and the worldwide credit crunch ends tomorrow we are stuck in this situation for some time. Tax income has fallen for the government, their budget is stretched to the limit, and against all good financial advice given to us by the government, the Treasury have authorised further debt to try and pull the UK economy around.
Oh, how I long for the simple days when Mars Bars were less than 20p, and bread was as low as 30p a loaf ? inflation, what inflation?