Northern Ireland 8 —– NHS junk computer 7

Yes a bit of a result for Northern Ireland gaining £8 billion from the Government who only spent £7 billion on the NHS Computer system that doesn’t work. There is one slight problem The NHS Computer may well get a few more in injury time as N.I. is finished scoring for this year at least.

I just heard on the news that consumer spending in the UK this year is expected to top £600 billion. Now that set me thinking… The government would get at least £60 billion of that in VAT AND PROBABLY A LOT MORE. Never mind the money they get from Income Tax, Corporation Tax, Inheritance Tax, Rates and the rest of the little schemes devised to extract money from the general public. An interesting one that you couldnt make up goes like this…… Your relative dies in Plymouth and you live in Manchester, to bring the body home you have to pay a tax for each county it passes through, what sick mind came up with that idea? What exactly do they do with it all?

Why did Northern Ireland only get £8 billion? We live in the most expensive part of the UK; we have the lowest wages, highest fuel costs, food costs and housing costs. The Government says (Peter Hain 2005) we get £5 billion more than we contribute, presumably that means we contribute £3 billion and it costs the UK Government £5 billion a year to keep us going. Local Government (its not really a government, its more like a franchise or something) can’t reduce corporation tax to compete with the Republic of Ireland for investment so we are prevented from competing on a level playing field.

Now the British Government is not completely stupid but are they paying us £5 billion a year so that we cant compete with the rest of the UK? It’s a possibility is it not? After all £5 billion is a pittance in their terms.