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Tuesday, August 26, 2008

UK Ruthlessly Fines and Taxes its Citizens

There have been many emails over the years from readers who often won’t tell me where they are from. But with names like Ian, Jon and others it isn’t too hard to figure out. It’s especially obvious when a reader calls me a Yank and the email address has “.uk”

Yes, I am a Yank and proud of it! And the work “Yank” doesn’t bother me, any more than someone of darker skin calling me a cracker. It just makes me laugh. Writing has a way of thickening your skin.

With all that said, I’ve been absolutely astounded at the UK police state. Stories abound of the fine-happy police in that country:

* A lady who pays £4,000 (~US$8,000) per year to ride the train for her daily commute is fined by the train police. What was her big transgression? She stood in an area marked off for baggage since there was nowhere else to stand or sit – even though she paid for a season ticket. So what? If the train is about to be underway and there isn’t anything in the baggage area, why should anyone care? New baggage isn’t going to suddenly spring into existence and require use of that space. But after they fined her on the spot the equivalent of about US$169.00, they told she could upgrade her ticket for £12.

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