Nanny State tries to tell Scots to eat well

Scotland has a problem – most of the population eat like they did half a century ago. If it’s deep fried, involves meat and potatoes, or pastry – it’s good. Fruit and vegetables are for English poofters. As a result, half of them are dead by 60, or near abouts.
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NannyKnowsBest blogs on a proposal by the Scottish Executive to requires pubs, as a condition of their liquor licences, promote “sensible eating”. What this means is unclear, on the one hand it could mean that pub food starts to disappear as the locals go to the fish and chip shop first, it could also mean that lardy pies are sold with side salad as compulsory. If it means telling a corpulent Glaswegian lad he ought to have a green salad and apple, instead of a pork pie and deep fried mars bar, it would be an interesting scene “Ah you sayin’ I’m fat laddie, I’ll geyya a smack in the chops ya cheeky sod, gimme ma pie and mars bar ya feckin
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Just don’t tell the NZ Health fascists, they don’t believe anyone should be responsible for their own failure to look after themselves.

Rodney back to flat tax?

Rodney Hide continues on a roll of more libertarian ACT policies by saying in a press release:

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"If ACT was writing this year's budget, it would include moves towards a flat tax and a Taxpayer Bill of Rights. A low, flat tax would boost productivity and growth, as well as benefiting Kiwi workers, businesses and communities."

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"Moves toward" weakens it a bit, but it would be nice if ACT went back to its 1996 election policy of a low flat tax (19.5% I recall?). This would be fairer, as there is no way that those on higher incomes consumer ever higher proportions of government services. Abolishing the 39% and 33% rates and cutting the 24% rate to 19.5% would be a great advance in freeing up New Zealanders to enjoy their own wealth, to look after themselves and encourage more skilled people to stay in New Zealand and immigrate there.

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Andrew Falloon is cheering it on, as he should. Not only is it more moral than the status quo and would be a great boost to the economy, but is easy to sell. The more you earn, the more you keep without nanny state looking to confiscate ever greater proportions of your income. The Nats should, in response, be talking about eliminating the top rate of income tax, which is a small step in the same direction (and taking us back to 1999 before Labour introduced it).

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Of course, eliminating the 39% rate and introducing a flat tax are great leaps forward, but not the end game :)

Aussies get tax cuts

It's not much but better than nothing.

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The Australian Federal government is full of pork, subsidies, welfare for middle class parents (sounds familiar?) and special grants for everything from Tasmania to subsidies for airlines to remote locations. In spite of this nonsense, the Sydney Morning Herald reports Treasurer Peter Costello announced some meagre tax cuts in the Aussie budget last night because the Federal Government is now virtually debt free, meaning it spends nothing on interest payments, so needs to collect less taxes.

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The tax cuts are meagre:

Top rate of 47% down to 45% with the threshold raised to A$150,001

Second rate of 42% down to 40% with the threshold raised to A$75,001

30% rate remains, threshold raised to A$25,001

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Plus a cut in fringe benefits tax and increases in low income tax rebates that mean some pay no income tax on the first A$10,000.

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The leftwing blogosphere bemoans tax cuts to the rich (yawn), those people whose money it was in the first place. Jordan Carter in his Orwellian newspeak claims that it is money taken from the poor to pay the rich - what screwed up world does he inhabit?

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Simple lesson to socialists:

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People on high incomes make those incomes from work or investment that they undertake with their own time, effort, brains and money. It is THEIR money before the beloved bosom of nanny state gets her craggly claws on it. Letting them keep an additional 2% of it is about taking LESS from people who MAKE money. The poor don't pay for the running of the state, in most cases they are net recipients or free riders.

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Why?

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Well let all the wealthy Australians earning more than $A75,000 leave and then the poor can get "their money back", and then watch them struggle to find doctors, lawyers, architects, airlines, food or indeed most of the things that business brings them.

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As Costello said, last year rates for lower income Australians were cut, now top rates are being cut and those that get more back do so because they pay more tax.

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From a libertarian perspective it is pathetic, although a small step in the right direction and more than Labour in NZ (or the UK) has done. If the fat in the Australian Federal Government was trimmed then Aussie would gain enormously by cutting rates a lot further and from the efficiencies of abolishing subsidies that prop up inefficient activities and regions. For example, A$1 billion is being pumped into the ABC and SBS to convert the TV channels to digital over ten years - why don't the viewers pay? A big hand out for breeders as well.

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However, as long as Aussie rides on the back of high mineral prices, it has no incentive to seriously reform further.

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Don Brash is saying this will see more kiwis going to Aussie to earn more money with lower taxes, it certainly wont discourage them!

Greens want free buses paid for by you

Green MP Metiria Turei is advocating “free” buses, which, of course, are not free, because someone is forced to pay for them. More theft from the pockets of those who don’t want to use the bus.
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These is evidence to show that free public transport does not relieve traffic congestion, but results in inflationary costs for public transport (operators demand more to run services and get paid it because they are not vulnerable to losing passenger when fares increase), dramatically reduces walking and cycling (why walk when you can hop on a bus for a short trip) and therefore reduces the level of exercise people get. Free buses also get overcrowded because people start taking trips over further distances “for the fun of it”, they ride to places without regard for the cost and they travel at the same time because it is free.
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The free inner city bus in Christchurch on average takes one person from a car per trip – one! The rest are people who would have walked, been a fare-paying bus passenger or wouldn’t have taken the trip.
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Free buses are a recipe for more taxes from you, virtually no impact on congestion, lazy people who don’t walk or bike and full buses at peak times when you really want them.

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The big question I want asked is, why do the Greens want motorised transport to be subsidised at all? Isn't it better that people pay the full subsidised cost of buses or choose to walk or not travel at all?

Ahmadinejad condemns liberal democracy in letter to Bush

Well I was wrong- it seems the letter that Iranian President "I doubt the Holocaust happened" Ahmadinejad to US President George Bush was not diplomatic, it was the tirade of a madman.

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Letters to improve relations are usually polite and generous, giving hope to the recipient that there is a genuine desire to negotiate about differences and live in harmony. Ahmadinejad has no such intent. According to Associated Press, besides slamming the US invasion of Iraq, he queries about the "truth of 9/11" (remember the hoards of conspiracy theories that claim the Bush Administration orchestrated it or that it was done by Jews to defame Islam) and then repeats his desire for Israel to be wiped out "how can this phenomenon be rationalised or explained?" he said.

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Well, read your history books. It was a promise by the colonial power to the Jews and the United Nations agreed to set it up. Yes it almost certainly was a major mistake, but that is that.

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He dismisses the Iranian nuclear programme as technological and scientific achievement by lumping it with others claiming "Why is it that any technological and scientific achievement reached in the Middle East region is translated into and portrayed as a 'threat to the Zionist [Israel] regime'? Is not scientific R&D [research and development] one of the basic rights of nations?" Yes it is, and you’re developing the means to destroy your near neighbour, because you don't believe it should exist.

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However, the Pièce de résistance is his condemnation of liberalism and western style democracy as they "have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity,"

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"Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems," his letter read.

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How is that any hope for peace? How can he even be close to reflecting reality? Liberal democracy has spread more than any other political system in the last twenty years, with most of eastern Europe, Latin America and increasingly more of Africa adopting it. It's very simple Mr Ahmadinejad, people have the right to choose who governs them - and not a special committee self-selected to weed out candidates that they don't approve of.

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So Iran's peace pipe is to continue to question Israel's existence, refuses to allow inspections of its nuclear facilities to confirm it is not developing nuclear weapons and to hell with liberal democracy, separation of church and state, freedom of speech, freedom of religion.

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Wonderful - so we're back to square one. Continue to make overtures to Iran and threaten sanctions, and be prepared for military action if Iran threatens to attack Israel.

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Interestingly, Arab newspapers have condemned the letter. Saudi newspaper Asharq Alawat said that Iran is seeking to control the region:

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"Tehran has made public its desire to lead. Iran seeks to control the region and the Middle East and become its policeman. This will lead to the breakdown of the peace process and the sabotaging of the Iraqi dream. We will witness a new arms race and will see governments being swallowed by organizations. It is sufficient to see who is standing by Tehran today to know what tomorrow will bring. " and "If Iran succeeds in its nuclear project, this will give the wrong message to other extremists."

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The Arab Times of Kuwait states: "Iran by its outbursts has rubbed salt into this tense atmosphere by embarking on childish adventures and failing to come out of the revolutionary mode fearing it will bring to the surface its deficiencies."

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As I have said before, the path to peace for Iran is simple:

- Open up nuclear facilities for inspection;

- Cease sponsoring terrorism;

- Cease sabre-rattling over Israel.

BBC on Ahmadinejad's letter
CNN on Ahmedinejad's letter
First part of Ahmedinejad's letter on Islamic Republic News Agency site (website claims to carry full text but doesn't)