"'Mike'" wrote in message
...
"Martin" wrote in message
...

People in UK pay far less in income tax than many EU countries.
In total UK is one of the least taxed countries in the EU.

On the subject of Income Tax, OK I won't argue as this is not my subject,
HOWEVER,

please prove to me with facts and figures that these other countries who
are better than us with respect to Income Tax do NOT pay all the other
taxes we are clobbered with. "Tax by Stealth" as people call it. Petrol.
Council. Environment. Waste Disposal. etc etc etc.
:-))

Top income tax and corporate tax rates in the EU-25 and the four candidate
states (source: Heritage Foundation and national reports) - from :
http://www.euractiv.com/en/taxation/...article-136190

Income tax Corporate tax
2004 - 2005 2004 - 2005
Austria 50 - 50 34 - 25
Belgium 50 - 50 33 - 34
Bulgaria 29 - 29 15 - 19.5
Croatia 35 - 45 20 - 20
Czech Republic 32 - 32 31 - 28
Cyprus 30 - 30 15 - 15
Denmark 59 - 26.5 30 - 30
Estonia 26 - 26 0 - 0
(on reinvested profits)
Finland 36 - 35.5 29 - 29
France 49.6 - 49.6 34.3 - 34.3
Germany 48.5 - 47 27.9 - 26.4
Greece 40 - 40 35 - 35
Hungary 40 - 38 18 - 16
Ireland 42 - 42 12.5 - 12.5
Italy 45 - 45.6 34 - 34
Latvia 25 - 25 19 - 15
Lithuania 33 - 33 15 - 15
Luxembourg 38.95 - 38.95 30.38 - 22.9
Malta 35 - 35 35 - 35
Netherlands 52 - 52 34.5 - 34.5
Poland 40 - 40 27 - 19
Portugal 40 - 40 25 - 25
Romania 40 - 16 25 - 16
Slovakia 38 - 19 25 - 19
Slovenia 50 - 50 25 - 25
Spain 48 - 45 35 - 40
Sweden 60 - 60 28 - 28
Turkey 40 - 40 33 - 30
United Kingdom 40 - 40 30 - 30



And explain how their cost of living compares, and is better than ours
please.
Prove me wrong please and make me and millions of others feel better.
Mike

"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message
...
In article , Tom
writes
Much as I disliked her as a person, she did a GREAT job of getting the
unions in their place.


As the Unions were representing the average working man, what you really
mean is "she did a great job of getting the working man in his place"


This is OT for the newsgroup but I would like to say that you have
obviously never worked in or for a closed shop nor can you evidently
remember the 1960's when union pressure meant men HAD to strike or risk
getting kicked out of their job or worse, even though they were happy to
go to work.

Secondary picketing and a lot of violence was the norm and pretty soul
destroying for many workers.
Janet Tweedy

Or the idiocy of coming out on strike because there is not enough sugar in
the tea (Ford Dagenham)

Jenny

On 11 Feb, 12:52, "JennyC" wrote:
Or the idiocy of coming out on strike because there is not enough sugar in
the tea (Ford Dagenham)

You are kidding me!!!

"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"Alan Holmes" wrote
It is said that Bush isn't the moron he appears to be!

The few americans I have spoken to are convinced he is a moron!
Alan

They will soon be able to choose between a woman or a black candidate :~))

Let's hope they choose the right one, whichever it is!

Alan

Jenny

"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message
...
In article , Tom
writes
Much as I disliked her as a person, she did a GREAT job of getting the
unions in their place.

As the Unions were representing the average working man, what you really
mean is "she did a great job of getting the working man in his place"

This is OT for the newsgroup but I would like to say that you have
obviously never worked in or for a closed shop nor can you evidently
remember the 1960's when union pressure meant men HAD to strike or risk
getting kicked out of their job or worse, even though they were happy to
go to work.

I agree, some unions had far to much influence, unfortunately those who had
a genuine grievance were not able to have any influence!

Secondary picketing and a lot of violence was the norm and pretty soul
destroying for many workers.

Alan

"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"Janet Tweedy" wrote in message
...
In article , Tom
writes
Much as I disliked her as a person, she did a GREAT job of getting the
unions in their place.


As the Unions were representing the average working man, what you really
mean is "she did a great job of getting the working man in his place"


This is OT for the newsgroup but I would like to say that you have
obviously never worked in or for a closed shop nor can you evidently
remember the 1960's when union pressure meant men HAD to strike or risk
getting kicked out of their job or worse, even though they were happy to
go to work.

Secondary picketing and a lot of violence was the norm and pretty soul
destroying for many workers.
Janet Tweedy

Or the idiocy of coming out on strike because there is not enough sugar in
the tea (Ford Dagenham)

I didn't know that!

Alan



Jenny

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 10:10:32 +0100, "JennyC"
wrote:


"'Mike'" wrote

Can any woman do any worse for any country that what Thatcher did for
Great Britain? :-(

She did what Hitler tried to do, bring the country to its knees. :-(
Mike

Much as I disliked her as a person, she did a GREAT job of getting the
unions in their place.

She destroyed mining, all UK's heavy industry in the process and gave
employees
third world working conditions.

Mining was destroyed by that idiot who was in charge of the union.

Alan

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 11 Feb 2007 09:26:12 -0000, "'Mike'" wrote:

"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"'Mike'" wrote

Can any woman do any worse for any country that what Thatcher did for
Great Britain? :-(

She did what Hitler tried to do, bring the country to its knees. :-(
Mike

Much as I disliked her as a person, she did a GREAT job of getting the
unions in their place.


And in doing so wrecked British Industry. That was good was it?


The Economist had a special about Britain recently - 2nd highest GDP in
Europe - low unemployment - amazing !!


I like the word "recently" that you put in there :-))

20 years to recover? That's good is it?

and who pays for it now? Us the tax payer. Do you like paying all these
high
taxes? Petrol? Air Travel? Pay by the mile on top of your car tax, petrol
tax, MOT tax, PAYE tax before you even get your money? I am taxed on my
pensions because I have so many, I 'saved for my future' and get taxed on
it, I get taxed on my investments.

People in UK pay far less in income tax than many EU countries.
In total UK is one of the least taxed countries in the EU.

Why is it then, that the people who are on pensions are the poorest?

Alan

"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"'Mike'" wrote in message
news
"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"'Mike'" wrote

Can any woman do any worse for any country that what Thatcher did for
Great Britain? :-(

She did what Hitler tried to do, bring the country to its knees. :-(
Mike

Much as I disliked her as a person, she did a GREAT job of getting the
unions in their place.

And in doing so wrecked British Industry. That was good was it?

What was so great about industry? Filthy factories poluting the air.......
GDP - composition by sector: agricultu 1%
industry: 25.6%
services: 73.4% (2006 est.)

Seems a better option to me :~)

The Economist had a special about Britain recently - 2nd highest GDP in
Europe - low unemployment - amazing !!

I like the word "recently" that you put in there :-))

20 years to recover? That's good is it?

and who pays for it now? Us the tax payer. Do you like paying all these
high taxes? Petrol? Air Travel? Pay by the mile on top of your car tax,
petrol tax, MOT tax, PAYE tax before you even get your money? I am taxed
on my pensions because I have so many, I 'saved for my future' and get
taxed on it, I get taxed on my investments.
All good?
Mike

You pay a LOT less tax than most Europeans .....

But do they get better value out of tax than we do?

Alan

Jenny

Janet Tweedy wrote:
In article , Tom
writes
As the Unions were representing the average working man, what you
really mean is "she did a great job of getting the working man in his
place"

This is OT for the newsgroup but I would like to say that you have
obviously never worked in or for a closed shop nor can you evidently
remember the 1960's when union pressure meant men HAD to strike or
risk getting kicked out of their job or worse, even though they were
happy to go to work.

As you say, this is completely off topic for this newsgroup so I will bow
out after this statement.

The whole point of a closed shop was this: Every man was in the union, so
every man had a vote. For or against. If the majority voted not to strike,
then no-one should strike[1]. If the majority voted to strike, then it was
right that every man should strike. Anyone who chose to work when the
majority had fairly voted to strike was a scab. One man = one vote, and
everyone gets a vote, pure direct democracy.

The man given the job of breaking the collective strength of the working
man was the ultimate scab, Norman Tebbit, former leader of the BALPA pilots'
union. The man who, in his own words, wanted to "..drag us back perhaps into
the 19th century, which in many ways was a very much better one for this
country ". Better perhaps if you were a rich man with a public school
education, but not if you were a working man.


Thatcher's legacy is still with us. It is in the overcrowded prisons, full
of kids who never had a job and so never had anything to lose. It is in the
crumbling hospitals and the (privately owned) railway companies that are now
subsidised at a rate that British Rail never was. Perhaps more to the point
it is also in the buoyant German steel industry, who's government chose in
1983 to subsidise rather than asset strip its nation, and is now the biggest
steel producer in the EU and the 6th biggest in the world, and in the £437.4
billion UK national debt [2]



I have no doubt that I will never convince you that collective bargaining
(the unions) was a good thing for the average working man and Britain in
general, and you will never convince me that Thatcher (and her skeletal
sidekick Tebbit) wasn't evil personified, so as I said, I am prepared to let
this disagreement lie.



Tom









[1] I am well aware of Arthur Scargill's call for illegal strikes. His
megalomania helped Thatcher and Tebbit destroy the mining industry.



[2] This is a minimum figure, as of 2003, the last year that figures have
been released. Thanks to the current governments use of PFI - Private
Finance Initiatives, a large quantity of debt is hidden away in company
balance books and does not appear in the government figures. No exact
analysis exists for the value of this hidden debt, but it is said to be
significant.

black, woman - good luck whatever...

but many will hope it's not Bush's sidekick Condo Rice!

Keith



"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"Alan Holmes" wrote
It is said that Bush isn't the moron he appears to be!

The few americans I have spoken to are convinced he is a moron!
Alan

They will soon be able to choose between a woman or a black candidate :~))
Jenny

"Alan Holmes" wrote in message
...

"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"'Mike'" wrote in message
news
"JennyC" wrote in message
...

"'Mike'" wrote

Can any woman do any worse for any country that what Thatcher did
for
Great Britain? :-(

She did what Hitler tried to do, bring the country to its knees.
:-(
Mike

Much as I disliked her as a person, she did a GREAT job of getting
the
unions in their place.

And in doing so wrecked British Industry. That was good was it?

What was so great about industry? Filthy factories poluting the
air.......
GDP - composition by sector: agricultu 1%
industry: 25.6%
services: 73.4% (2006 est.)

Seems a better option to me :~)

The Economist had a special about Britain recently - 2nd highest
GDP in
Europe - low unemployment - amazing !!

I like the word "recently" that you put in there :-))

20 years to recover? That's good is it?

and who pays for it now? Us the tax payer. Do you like paying all
these
high taxes? Petrol? Air Travel? Pay by the mile on top of your car
tax,
petrol tax, MOT tax, PAYE tax before you even get your money? I am
taxed
on my pensions because I have so many, I 'saved for my future' and
get
taxed on it, I get taxed on my investments.
All good?
Mike

You pay a LOT less tax than most Europeans .....

But do they get better value out of tax than we do?


For a start, I understand they have better health services in France and
Germany, and I believe live longer as a result. Especially now they've
stopped smoking Gauloises all the time.

--
Mike.



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

"Alan Holmes" wrote in message
...

"JennyC" wrote in message
...
[...]
Or the idiocy of coming out on strike because there is not enough
sugar in
the tea (Ford Dagenham)

I didn't know that!

But did it actually happen? In any civilian employment I know about,
people pay for their own at the canteen or from the tea swindle: not
something it would make any sense to take up with the management. Few
adult civilians would be subjected to a situation where they didn't have
a choice about how much sugar went in their tea. I fancy I scent an
urban myth of perhaps even less than "Winterval" credibility.

--
Mike.



--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com

On 11 Feb, 18:26, "Mike Lyle"
wrote:
For a start, I understand they have better health services in France and
Germany, and I believe live longer as a result. Especially now they've
stopped smoking Gauloises all the time.

)) Gitane, it was. And we all did Gauloises because our parents
smoked these and we could knick them. The health services are perhaps
better but they are all 'drug' freak. My cousin has a medicine
wardrobe - a huge cupboard of the stuff!! I have a shoe box and a tiny
metal box for travelling in comparison. And in my shoe box you'll find
plasters, rennies, anadin, arnica and lots of essential oils. Every
time one of my kids has something in France, they all rush for the
Doliprane, alka seltzers, a multitude of homeopathy pills, ointments,
potions and stuff. Honestly, there's a chemist at every corner!

Sadly, one of my nephew got very ill last year - he has had such an
accumulation of antibiotics and pills galore, straight from the
cupboard, that he was thought to have Krone disease. He is better but
sadly he is off a lot of food, his bowels are so sensitive he can't
eat vegs, dairies ... He's 14. When he came to us at easter he kept
using an inhaler. I asked him why he used it, and he said because I
feel I need it. I asked him what he felt and he said 'different
because we're going in the car'. That kid has had so much stuff pumped
into him, it's amazing he's still here. After 2 weeks with us and 30
miles of walks on the coastal path of wales, horse rides, outdoor play
on the beach and good food, he hasn't used his inhaler. He's back this
easter for he has had the best holidays of his life ;o)

"Mike Lyle" wrote in message
.. .

"Alan Holmes" wrote in message
...

"JennyC" wrote in message
...
[...]
Or the idiocy of coming out on strike because there is not enough
sugar in
the tea (Ford Dagenham)

I didn't know that!

But did it actually happen? In any civilian employment I know about,
people pay for their own at the canteen or from the tea swindle: not
something it would make any sense to take up with the management. Few
adult civilians would be subjected to a situation where they didn't have
a choice about how much sugar went in their tea. I fancy I scent an
urban myth of perhaps even less than "Winterval" credibility.
Mike.

Could be an urban legend Mike, but it does give one a feel of how it was in
those days :~)
Jenny