Why do they do it?

[DodgyAgent]

Except prop up thousands upon thousands of bottom feeder pimps and other attendant services that wouldn't even exist if it were not for the contractor and HMRC's rabid desire to make them extinct.

Fair point

[SpontaneousOrder]

So, in other words, no.

Increasing the market for IT contractors ? Seriously ? David 'I will end Visa abuse' Cameron did that ? David, 'meant to say, I will exclude ICTs from that' Cameron ? David 'IR35 Investigations will increase' Cameron ? David 'HMRC must collect freelancers personal tax data from agencies' Cameron ? David 'clamp down on tax avoidance, except where the perpetrators are too powerful or donate to me' Cameron ?

OK, thanks for putting me in the picture....

It's the opportunity cost that people find very difficult to conceptualise.
That cost, if you take policy at face value, would be far higher under a Labour government.

[ZARDOZ]

The con and lab parties can't stand meeting with real people. Just look at all the stage managed events they have been running this election, heavily controlled with audiences of sycophants/lobby groups and party activists. Real members of the public with real concerns will get nowhere near them. Millifandom fabricated via Labour head office. Support from small business fabricated through Conservative head office.

Pretty much how the government is now run, they fabricate support for policies decided by powerful lobby groups The same lobby groups fabricate public support for the policies through carefully crafted media releases. This is no democracy. It's why they are seen as out of touch, they really are and it doesn't matter unless people start to vote for someone else.

[DodgyAgent]

The con and lab parties can't stand meeting with real people. .

Apart from Boris

[TestMangler]

Apart from Boris

Is he a real person ? The first time I saw him on 'Have I got news for you' I thought he was a Harry Enfield character.

[darmstadt]

You may have a point but my argument is that the Tories always create the better environment for small businesses to flourish. Anyway you are all rich little twerps that do nothing for the employment market so really you are just tax avoiders http://www.inc.com/magazine/19960701/1725.html
And the new small companies never created enough jobs, because too many of them were one-person shows.
So really you don't count so they may as well tax the sh*t out of you at least they can be seen to "care"

So basically since being in power they've created a load more tax dodgers: Self-employment at 40 year high, says ONS - BBC News and http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/lmac/s...-employed.html

[SueEllen]

Is he a real person ? The first time I saw him on 'Have I got news for you' I thought he was a Harry Enfield character.

Yeah he's real.

I have trusted witnesses that can prove it.

[vetran]

Yeah he's real.

I have had a child with him that can prove it.

FTFY

[d000hg]

No way Boris can be party leader. A couple of decades ago, probably, but these days you have to be polished and PR trained and he is neither. When someone tries to interrupt him, he lets them - to the extent you never get to hear him answer a question or finish a point.

[NickFitz]

It gets worse. It now looks like people/businesses were added to the list of "signatories" via a phishing email scam: Small Business letter to the Telegraph; an attempt to defraud the electorate?

Aurum Solutions found itself at the centre of a swirling tea cup this morning; our Sales Director, Steve O’Hehir, was listed as a signatory to a letter supporting Conservative Party policies, published on the front page of the Daily Telegraph. Steve remembers the email apparently from Karren Brady (last week), and recalls clicking on the link to find out more: however he did not, and would not, have supplied his details referencing Aurum Solutions in any political support.

As a company Aurum Solutions has always had a policy of remaining politically unaligned - its been that way throughout our 11 year history. Whatever the views of the people working within the company have, and we are a close-knit team, we all agree that the company doesn’t have a political agenda. We’re far too busy for one of those anyway.

As Managing Director of Aurum Solutions, I contacted the Daily Telegraph and asked for Steve’s name to be removed from the list of signatories. The tweet we wrote as one part of that contact process has received a lot of attention, and has been referenced in other national media titles.

Our position is simple: as a corporate entity, we are politically neutral, whatever we believe or support as individuals is completely separate. As of this afternoon, our request to be removed from the list was met. So, with that, we’re going back to our software and the data.