HAVING sometimes been accused – wrongly, I stress – by Herself of buying most of my Christmas and birthday presents at Poundworld, can I, on behalf of everyone in a place which seems to attract spivs and rip-off merchants like a magnet, offer a small bouquet (it’s small because I don’t like going overboard on such things) to the proprietors of that establishment for being one of I suspect very few establishments to calculate the dreaded GST properly.
In common with the vice-chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, I too am deeply suspicious of the news that some United Kingdom chain stores with businesses here have decided that they will absorb the tax and not pass it on to customers.
I’ve never set foot in Poundworld but the news that from now on they intend charging £1.03 for all their products brought a smile to my face. Having said that, it also strongly re-enforced my view that our elected representatives in the Big House did no one but businesses a favour when they refused to make it compulsory for the new tax to be added on to the final payment at the till.
Without naming names, but we and they all know who most of them are, those UK concerns who have decided to set up shop here having been ripping us off for decades – ever since Ted Heath took Britain into what was then the Common Market and Value Added Tax became a feature of life over there.
Of course, it wasn’t too long before we were getting charged prices inclusive of an amount equivalent to the VAT charged in Britain. The difference, of course, was that over there the money went into the government’s coffers but here it went straight into shareholders’ dividends and executives’ now almost obscene bonuses.
We have put up with this nonsense (often whingingly referred to as a sum to compensate for the high cost of freight) for well over three decades so I hope those who run these stores will forgive me if I don’t reach instantly for a forelock to tug in grateful thanks.
All well and good for Economic Development Minister Philip Ozouf to be jumping up and down like a semi-demented banshee at the news. I’d much prefer it if he got a little tougher with these 21st century spivs and told them that unless they stopped ripping us off by adding an all-profit 17.5 per cent to what we should be paying, he’d tax them out of existence.
If Herself can order items from UK mail order firms and get not only the VAT knocked off but free delivery also then I’m damn sure some of the expensive pinstripes Senator Ozouf employs can work out a way of stopping what amounts to legalised theft. That, rather than reducing their excess profits by a measly three per cent, would really be more beneficial to consumers than his other bit of ‘good news’.
As a fellow columnist – albeit from a national newspaper – often says, you couldn’t make it up. I wonder what he might have made of the latest in a long line of shambolic decisions from the outfit I used to call the Department of Expensive Cock-Ups?
Transport and Technical Services have really done themselves proud on this occasion, haven’t they? Unfortunately, the bloke in charge – Minister Guy de Faye – can’t press the rewind button on the remote control this time, unlike the occasion when he blew Channel Television’s Puffin to smithereens and then had to rewind the film to put the puppet together again after parents complained that it upset their brats.
‘It is with regret that I have to inform Members that during the initial design phase (of a new £1 million road redesign scheme at Bel Royal) the emergency services were not consulted. When the new road layout was under construction it became apparent that the emergency services and other motorists were voicing concerns,’ he told that lot in the Big House the other day.
That bit of ministerial gobbledygook could otherwise have been summed up in a seven-word sentence: it looked okay on the drawing board.
In addition to the fact that ambulances and fire appliances (large vehicles, usually) were apparently omitted from the equations that were fed into the computer – something so outrageously inept as to be almost unbelievable – can someone please tell me if, rather than when, this £1 million road redesign scheme (on what is probably the Island’s major road) was either debated by our elected representatives or indeed offered up for consultation to those of us who not only use roads but also pay handsomely for their upkeep? Judging by the comments of those in the emergency services, while they seem pleased to have finally been placed in the consultation loop, they certainly don’t seem at all confident that this particular million quid is the end of the story.
For how much longer, I and many others are beginning to wonder, can this level of incompetence be tolerated. Deputy de Faye told the Big House that an investigation had been launched into why the emergency services had not been consulted.
Another internal investigation, I suppose, following which they’ll probably put the office cat on reduced rations, having failed to find a proper scapegoat.
Perhaps Deputy de Faye might like to tell taxpayers how close (or far away, more likely) his finger and those of his highly paid executives were to the pulse on this occasion. Given that the offices are presumably still at South Hill, I’d hazard a guess that the minister’s digit was somewhere towards the bottom of Pier Road.
And finally. I’m glad I’m not a St Helier ratepayer. Making up a pensions contributions shortfall for the next 80-plus years wouldn’t fill me with glee. The sensible course would have been to include the 15 presently on temporary contracts in the current scheme and then all new entrants under new arrangements.
Let’s tackle these 21st century spivs
HAVING sometimes been accused – wrongly, I stress – by Herself of buying most of my Christmas and birthday presents at Poundworld, can I, on behalf of everyone in a place which seems to attract spivs and rip-off merchants like a magnet, offer a small bouquet (it’s small because I don’t like going overboard on such things) to the proprietors of that establishment for being one of I suspect very few establishments to calculate the dreaded GST properly.
In common with the vice-chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, I too am deeply suspicious of the news that some United Kingdom chain stores with businesses here have decided that they will absorb the tax and not pass it on to customers.
I’ve never set foot in Poundworld but the news that from now on they intend charging £1.03 for all their products brought a smile to my face. Having said that, it also strongly re-enforced my view that our elected representatives in the Big House did no one but businesses a favour when they refused to make it compulsory for the new tax to be added on to the final payment at the till.
Without naming names, but we and they all know who most of them are, those UK concerns who have decided to set up shop here having been ripping us off for decades – ever since Ted Heath took Britain into what was then the Common Market and Value Added Tax became a feature of life over there.
Of course, it wasn’t too long before we were getting charged prices inclusive of an amount equivalent to the VAT charged in Britain. The difference, of course, was that over there the money went into the government’s coffers but here it went straight into shareholders’ dividends and executives’ now almost obscene bonuses.
We have put up with this nonsense (often whingingly referred to as a sum to compensate for the high cost of freight) for well over three decades so I hope those who run these stores will forgive me if I don’t reach instantly for a forelock to tug in grateful thanks.
All well and good for Economic Development Minister Philip Ozouf to be jumping up and down like a semi-demented banshee at the news. I’d much prefer it if he got a little tougher with these 21st century spivs and told them that unless they stopped ripping us off by adding an all-profit 17.5 per cent to what we should be paying, he’d tax them out of existence.
If Herself can order items from UK mail order firms and get not only the VAT knocked off but free delivery also then I’m damn sure some of the expensive pinstripes Senator Ozouf employs can work out a way of stopping what amounts to legalised theft. That, rather than reducing their excess profits by a measly three per cent, would really be more beneficial to consumers than his other bit of ‘good news’.
As a fellow columnist – albeit from a national newspaper – often says, you couldn’t make it up. I wonder what he might have made of the latest in a long line of shambolic decisions from the outfit I used to call the Department of Expensive Cock-Ups?
Transport and Technical Services have really done themselves proud on this occasion, haven’t they? Unfortunately, the bloke in charge – Minister Guy de Faye – can’t press the rewind button on the remote control this time, unlike the occasion when he blew Channel Television’s Puffin to smithereens and then had to rewind the film to put the puppet together again after parents complained that it upset their brats.
‘It is with regret that I have to inform Members that during the initial design phase (of a new £1 million road redesign scheme at Bel Royal) the emergency services were not consulted. When the new road layout was under construction it became apparent that the emergency services and other motorists were voicing concerns,’ he told that lot in the Big House the other day.
That bit of ministerial gobbledygook could otherwise have been summed up in a seven-word sentence: it looked okay on the drawing board.
In addition to the fact that ambulances and fire appliances (large vehicles, usually) were apparently omitted from the equations that were fed into the computer – something so outrageously inept as to be almost unbelievable – can someone please tell me if, rather than when, this £1 million road redesign scheme (on what is probably the Island’s major road) was either debated by our elected representatives or indeed offered up for consultation to those of us who not only use roads but also pay handsomely for their upkeep? Judging by the comments of those in the emergency services, while they seem pleased to have finally been placed in the consultation loop, they certainly don’t seem at all confident that this particular million quid is the end of the story.
For how much longer, I and many others are beginning to wonder, can this level of incompetence be tolerated. Deputy de Faye told the Big House that an investigation had been launched into why the emergency services had not been consulted.
Another internal investigation, I suppose, following which they’ll probably put the office cat on reduced rations, having failed to find a proper scapegoat.
Perhaps Deputy de Faye might like to tell taxpayers how close (or far away, more likely) his finger and those of his highly paid executives were to the pulse on this occasion. Given that the offices are presumably still at South Hill, I’d hazard a guess that the minister’s digit was somewhere towards the bottom of Pier Road.
And finally. I’m glad I’m not a St Helier ratepayer. Making up a pensions contributions shortfall for the next 80-plus years wouldn’t fill me with glee. The sensible course would have been to include the 15 presently on temporary contracts in the current scheme and then all new entrants under new arrangements.
Article posted on 19th May, 2008 - 3.00pm