Thursday, September 06, 2007

Hit and Myth

Myth-Air travel is usually for hard working families to go to Spain

Truth-“A third of return flights from Britain last year were made by 4% of the population”


Myth - Calls are in a competitive market

Truth “ It typically costs 12p to send a 160 character text message from one British mobile to another. Byte for byte this works out as 12 times what NASA pays to retrieve data from the Hubble Space telescope”

Myth - White skinheads attack Jews

Truth -The problem is almost exclusively due to young Muslims


Myth - Unprotected sex amongst feckless teenagers spreads AIDS

Truth - The incidence of AIDS among hetro-sexulas was and remains largely associated with infected Africa immigrants

Myth- Wage differentials between men and women are caused by sexism

Truth- Life choices and child care breaks are the cause .


UPDATE Good point from Ed
But who makes the other two thirds? Cheap air travel HAS allowed even the poorest of British families to afford a crap package holiday, the fact that the richer fly more is of no surprise at all.

Always worth turning a stat around .The children or Lawyers are six times less likely than the children of the poor to end up in poverty. Turn that around and you wonder how on earth the children of Lawyers manage to be quite as downwardly mobile one time in six.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I bought my usual morning toast from the cafe near my office yesterday. Beryl, the manager, was still hobbling around on the very sore knee she's had for a couple of weeks and she was spitting fire about the relationship between AIDs and smoking.

Haven't you seen your GP about that knee yet? I asked Beryl.

You know I refuse to go to my GP's now, Flo, Beryl said. I'M A LEPER, AINT I? COS I'M SMOKER. My doctor don't want nuffink to do wiv me now, does 'e? Oh, don't get me started about that, it makes my blood boil. All the £billions in extra tax us smokers pay and they got the nerve to take our health service away.

It's disgusting, said one of the painters from the building site. You know why they've done it to us, don't you,? Cos the 'elf service dahn 'ere in England is broke from all the extra money they're paying doctors and cos England's sending billions up to Scotland.

No, it's all these people coming e're from abroad, said gran Morely, who was sticking her head round the door but keeping her cigarette outside. I bet all the Scottish smokers get treated, she said.

Oh, course they do, said Beryl - and we pay, don't we, billions and billions. it's bloody disgusting!

Has your GP told you that he won't treat your knee, Beryl? I asked.

No, but you know 'e won't, Flo, it was in the papers, weren't it? Smokers in England only get treated for emergencies. Doctors won't touch us for routine problems unless we give up smoking...

Unless you got AIDS, said Joyce, the other cafe assistant, then they'll spend millions on you.

I didn't know that, why? Asked one of the builders, choking on his giant sausage roll.

Because WE'RE ENGLISH, Bill, said Beryl. Scots get treated, we don't.
AIDs get treated, we don't.
'Elf tourists get treated, we don't. We're just the stupid beggers who work our butts off to pay for everybody else's health service, aint we?

Gran's right, it's because of all these people coming here, said Joyce. It sickens me.

Yeah, but you still vote for this thievin' lot, don't you? Beryl said.

Oh, blimey, Joyce, you don't vote for Brown, do you? Said I.

Joyce walked off with a face like she was sucking lemons and began stabbing the sausages, but refused to answer.

Don't torment her, said Beryl, you know she's voted Labour all 'er life.

She still gonna vote for them now they've made 'er a leper for smoking? Gran Morley said. If she does, she's mental!

Vote for Cameron, he's a smoker and he's going to stick up for us smokers, I told all of them.

But at lunchtime when I had a quick look at the BBC news website..........oh, no !@!*@!!*!!

Well, looks like Cameron's gone as mental as Joyce.

Auntie Flo'

Newmania said...

Yes I was rather disappointed to see that Flo

Old BE said...

A third of return flights from Britain last year were made by 4% of the population

But who makes the other two thirds? Cheap air travel HAS allowed even the poorest of British families to afford a crap package holiday, the fact that the richer fly more is of no surprise at all.

Are you a secret socialist N?

Newmania said...

Hardly Ed I thought it was an intersting stat though. That is a good point thouigh,...as ever . I belive you are studying at the moment ...? If so best of luck

Anonymous said...

Ed,

I'm on a 5 min break from working, so, at lightenin speed - please do the maths!

4% of the pop is almost 2.5 million people.

We're largely talking about the richest and mega rich here, aren't we?

They took a third, or,

roughly 66 million flights pa out of 200 million total.

THE TAXPAYER THEREFORE SUBSIDISED THIS RICH 4% OF THE POPULATION c ONE THIRD OF THE TOTAL AVIATION SUBSIDY, or

£13.8 BILLION

or some £5,520 each pa.

or £22,080 per rich family of four pa.

There are say, 24 million paye taxpayers in uk? Funding, say, 75%? of the annual aviation industry subsidy of £42 billion pa.,

That is, say, £1300 extra tax paid per annum bY EACH paye taxpayer to subsidise these rich gits - plus a higher rate of VAT to cover the other third of the subsidy.

How many times do we each have to fly to offset the cost of that subsidy and claw back the extra tax/VAT we've paid to subsidise aviation? A lot. More than most of us ever fly.

Many of these rich gits have organised their tax affairs so they pay almost no tax.

The 12% of UK people who never fly - like me - receive no subsidy claw back whatsoever. The 50% of us do not fly in any one year are paying through the nose too.

IN FACT, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A CHEAP FLIGHT FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF US.

ALMOST ALL OF US PAY THROUGH THE NOSE, MANY TIMES MORE THAN THE SAVING ON THE CHEAP FLIGHTS WE TAKE, IN ORDER TO SUBDISE A RICH, MINIMAL TAX PAYING, FREQUENT FLYING MINORITY.

And you think that objecting to that daylight robbery amounts to socialism?

Auntie Flo'

Old BE said...

Are the airlines really "subsidised"? Sure they are taxed less heavily than road transport but does that amount to a subsidy? The state does not build the airports, the state does not provide Air Traffic Control. Where does this taxpayers' money go then?

Newmania said...

Flo has been convincing on this before Ed although I saw a better defence than I could mount on dale

Old BE said...

If there is a subsidy then by all means let's get rid of it, but I hold no truck with people who say they can't afford to use the airlines. If you book carefully there are ridiculously cheap deals out there it has nothing to do with wealth or greed.

Anonymous said...

Ed said...

If there is a subsidy then by all means let's get rid of it


Aviation and its mega-billionaire owners are a uniquely privileged in receiving a number of huge, unique, tax exemptions given to no other industry or individual. Aviation is:

EXEMPT FROM VAT

It's zero rating applies even when it buys little things like aircraft.

EXEMPT FROM FUEL TAX

Even though this encourages it to squander our oil which will run out in 20-30 years

EXEMPT FROM THE POLLUTER PAYS PRINCIPLE

Even though all other industries must pay for the environmental damage they do

And despite it's key role in polluting our air, enviroment, planet & health with its noise and damaging emissions

Despite it's role, too, in damaging children's educational attainment, through jet pauses in classrooms under flightpaths, plus the quality of life of millions.

IT'S EXEMPT FROM THE LEGAL COMPENSATION PRINCIPLE

How many industries could contract to take you and your luggage somewhere, lose £1000 luggage and pay c £200 compensation? That's what aviation did to millions for decades.

INFRASTRUCTURAL SUBSIDIES

For example, when BAA turned the M11 into a slip road for Stansted, the taxpayer paid half the £19 million cost. Infratructural costs have not been quantified, but will be huge.

How much do all of these exemptions cost us, the taxpayer?


£9 BILLION a year for tax and VAT exemptions

£16 BILLION for the huge cost aviation imposes on society and the environment

£17 BILLION aviaiton tourism's balance of payments deficit.

This is the £17 billion gap between the amount outgoing UK aviation tourists spend overseas and incoming, overseas tourists spend in UK.

£42 BILLION per annum in total.

DOUBLE OR TRIPLE the expansion of airports and flights as the government intends and these costs will double or triple too.

I say that these tax exemptions are subsidies because we all, every one of us, must pay more tax and VAT, more infrastructural and environmental costs, to compensate for this missing or exempted revenue from aviation and we all pay for the damage it does.

That's why there is no such thing as a cheap flight, we all pa through the nose for them.

Only the very rich tend to fly often enough to make a net gain - and you and I and millions like us subsidise their gain with our loss.

Auntie Flo'

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