The Grumpy Old Blog

So, Treasury minister David Gauke infoms the great British public today that paying a plumber in cash to get a discount is morally wrong. It would appear that when you pay someone cash in hand to save on the paperwork or reduce the costs of fixing something, you are defrauding the state by taking money from the NHS and police force and reducing the money available for other public spending. Yes Mr Gauke, I suppose it is. But how about the billions of pounds that the wonderful Dave Hartnett from HMRC (Revenue and Customs) let Vodafone off the hook (pardon pun) with. Or the millions Goldman Sachs got away with. Then there's the small matter of the sale of the actual Revenue and Customs buildings to a bunch of parasitic, off-shore tax dodgers in Bermuda. Very sensible that one. Or the millions the government allow the private train companies to suck out of the economy in return for an appalling service - subsidies that allowed the Souter family to trouser £38mil...

With the high profile separation of Tom Cruise and his orange crate from Katie Holmes appearing all over the media, Scientology is once again back in the news. I have always said, each to their own with their beliefs, and whatever makes people happy, providing they leave me alone, I've no worries. However, a belief in little green men, thought up by a science fiction writer (L of the Ron Mother Hubbard) who openly said "the best way to make a million is to start a religion" and who himself disappeared off in a camper van around Western America in 1980, defies belief. The current chief executive of the business, a David Miscavige (puns on the "Miscavige of Justice" are no doubt rife) is also of the less-than-tall community. Rumour has it that the two of them often compare orange crates before standing up at one of their cult conventions to extoll the virtues of parting simpletons from their hard-earned cash. The money would be far better spent on the home...