BN66 - Round 2 (Court of Appeal)

[DonkeyRhubarb]

http://wimg.co.uk/ShV.doc


Excellent DR - truly excellent.

Most of the credit has to go to Toocan who drafted it.

[BarneyCool]

Response from Eric Pickles

bog standard reply. Will send off the followup tonight.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

bog standard reply. Will send off the followup tonight.

Good stuff.

We at least deserve a written reply from a Minister, hence followup letter (1) below.

[loser]

sent off today

Most of the credit has to go to Toocan who drafted it.

Such a lily-livered response from the government. Nice letter in response. Sent mine off today. Once again, well done to all involved for drafting this and motivating me and many others on here to take some action.

[DonkeyRhubarb]

Such a lily-livered response from the government. Nice letter in response. Sent mine off today. Once again, well done to all involved for drafting this and motivating me and many others on here to take some action.

There is an understandable feeling amongst some people that writing letters is a complete and utter waste of time. I'm a "glass half empty" kind of person myself and I have no faith whatsoever in politicians, so I'm just as pessimistic and sceptical.

So why bother?

Because if we don't keep on their backs it creates the impression that this is no big deal. Maybe for some it isn't but for many this will be life changing, and not in a good way.

It's hard to really tell what, if any, effect the letters are having but for the sake of a few stamps it's surely better than doing nothing.

[Toocan]

Action this day!

There is an understandable feeling amongst some people that writing letters is a complete and utter waste of time. I'm a "glass half empty" kind of person myself and I have no faith whatsoever in politicians, so I'm just as pessimistic and sceptical.

So why bother?

Because if we don't keep on their backs it creates the impression that this is no big deal. Maybe for some it isn't but for many this will be life changing, and not in a good way.

It's hard to really tell what, if any, effect the letters are having but for the sake of a few stamps it's surely better than doing nothing.

In addition to what the Donkey says keep in mind that all of this correspondence builds our case. I don’t think any of us expects this topic to make the budget speech on the 22nd or even the budget notes. All we need is a single line in the draft Finance Bill – that is all we need. It may be a few days after the budget till we know if we have achieved our goal.

If that doesn’t happen then our campaigning effort will increase – but because we have all already made the MPs aware of the issue it will be much easier to get our case heard at that stage.

The pattern of response and indeed non-response tells us that we are having an effect – Timms never shied away from twisting the knife and we’ve had none of that.

There are now four letters available – see Donkey’s signature for the letters. Please send whichever one is appropriate and customise the letter if you can. Let your elected representatives know the effect that section 58 has had, is having and will have on you and your family. They don’t know unless you tell them because HMRC never conducted any impact assessment.

So send your letter – they are counting them.

[SantaClaus]

Excellent work on the letter guys!

Keep plugging away everyone! We are slowly making chinks in their armour

[Slobbo]

I have a relative in Inverness who is writing to Danny Alexander on our behalf as he is her MP. Is it an option for people to get relatives to write as well?

[DonkeyRhubarb]

I have a relative in Inverness who is writing to Danny Alexander on our behalf as he is her MP. Is it an option for people to get relatives to write as well?

Absolutely. I've also heard from quite a few people whose partners have sent personal letters.

HMRC are very thick skinned but they won't welcome all this political attention.

[OnYourBikeGB]

There is an understandable feeling amongst some people that writing letters is a complete and utter waste of time. I'm a "glass half empty" kind of person myself and I have no faith whatsoever in politicians, so I'm just as pessimistic and sceptical.

So why bother?

Because if we don't keep on their backs it creates the impression that this is no big deal. Maybe for some it isn't but for many this will be life changing, and not in a good way.

It's hard to really tell what, if any, effect the letters are having but for the sake of a few stamps it's surely better than doing nothing.

There's also the possibility that we can become the least worst option. By being a constant pain, and gradually forcing their hand to reveal more and more, it may eventually reach the stage that HMRC realise we are stripping them of their weaponary against Joe Public. Someone in there made the decision to mislead/misbrief ministers. Someone in there made the decision to ignore legal advice and all Human Rights concerns and ride rough-shod over the law. The longer we persist, the closer we get. It may reach the stage where the smarter thing for HMRC to do is back off, in case Joe Public gets a good clear sight of the power they wield and their abuse of it. Yep, it is a long shot, but every long shot we take raises our chances, and even long shots sometime hit their targets.