The Beeb and VAT

[lilelvis2000]

I've just seen this on the beeb


VAT: What you could save
£149 Apple Ipod Nano 16gb - save £3.73
£475 Aspinal of London leather handbag - save £11.88
£90 Camper walking shoes - save £2.25
£10,000 TagHeuer watch - save £250

Linked to show I'm not making it up

Can aybody see the error?

Using the Tag watch example. If the watch was £10k with 17.5% vat, then minus the vat it was 8510.64. Adding the 15% Vat makes the new price 9787.23, a saving of 212.77, somewhat less than the £250 quoted.

All the person has done is reduce the overall starting price by 2.5%.

Another tax break for the rich...or another profit increase for retailers.

[lilelvis2000]

I don't see that it was Labour punitive taxes that killed off those industries.

1. Mining. We all know who shut that down. Regardless of good or bad, why and how it was done, it was done by the Thatcher government.

2. Shipbuilding. Done cheaper by Poland, better by Japan, and both by Korea. Nothing would have made it survive the way it was.

3. Steel. Similar, plus mistakes by British Steel, and then a combination of mistakes and home-country-bias on the part of Dutch-owned Corus.

All were doomed anyway, but none went because of anybody's taxes.

Corus had a HUGE plant just five minutes walk from my house...five years ago they moth-balled it and sent the work to Holland. The only things made around here now is some chemicals and cardboard boxes.

I've noticed that the new office space being built down the road from my place..next to the motorway has completely shut. No tenants, no work being done. its not finished but it looks like they've run outta cash.

Which is why I'm applying for a R&D grant to built some software...I should get it blind folded! (well that's my hope anyway).

[expat]

Mining was destroyed well before Maggie. By her time it was nothing but a work-fare scheme. All she did was say 'no more'

Same with shipbuilding.

And as was done to shipbuilding was done to the Steel industry the punitive 'profiteering' taxes that prevented the renewal of equipment and basically forcing the companies into bankruptcy and nationalisation.

They were all gone before Maggie, she just stopped the bleed on the UK economy becoming a full blown haemorrhage when globalisation came along.

I agree it wasn't Maggie that spontaneously decided to scrap any of these industries, all were already doomed (as I said above). My point is that it wasn't Labour taxes that killed them either.

[expat]

OK, you come up with a list of British things to buy.

I understand from the Torygraph that we are still the 6th largest manufacturing economy in the world. So I eat my words.

[Purple Dalek]

I agree it wasn't Maggie that spontaneously decided to scrap any of these industries, all were already doomed (as I said above). My point is that it wasn't Labour taxes that killed them either.

It certainly wasn't the tories that brought in the 'profiteering' taxes that prevented retooling. So who the name of sweet baby jesus do you say it was?

[expat]

It certainly wasn't the tories that brought in the 'profiteering' taxes that prevented retooling. So who the name of sweet baby jesus do you say it was?

Jesus. I am saying that it wasn't taxes that killed them. That is distinct from saying whose taxes killed them. Have you stopped beating your wife yet?

[Purple Dalek]

Jesus. I am saying that it wasn't taxes that killed them. That is distinct from saying whose taxes killed them. Have you stopped beating your wife yet?

I believe it was, badly designed taxes applied at the worst possible times. A double whammy. The union problems and all the other stuff all competitor economies had at mostly the same times.

[lilelvis2000]

I agree it wasn't Maggie that spontaneously decided to scrap any of these industries, all were already doomed (as I said above). My point is that it wasn't Labour taxes that killed them either.

Why did Maggie close down coal mining anyway? did she believe that the North Sea gas would last forever? Whilst there will be coal for centuries to come and they've developed the technology to burn it very cleanly...and store the CO2 in a safe place.

[TimberWolf]

Why did Maggie close down coal mining anyway? did she believe that the North Sea gas would last forever? Whilst there will be coal for centuries to come and they've developed the technology to burn it very cleanly...and store the CO2 in a safe place.

I don't think any of that is true. We have relatively little coal left and our mining industry has been declining since it peaked sometime around 1910. We once had vast amounts of coal and this gave us our empire, but what little is left now is harder and more costly to get at. I wish we'd extract our remaining oil sustainably too.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

One must remember that historically it has been the labour party that has destroyed UK industry by preventing retooling etc. with punitive taxes when they were about to do so. Just look at ship-building, steel works, mining all major industries ham-strung. Think more recently with the Pensions Grab. Now that Old-Labour is back do you really think they will do anything different to what they've achieved previously?

Not doubting your word (really I'm not) - can you elaborate on these taxes - I am genuinely interested in the history of this and I haven't heard it cited as a cause before.