Jimmy Carr: 'I've made a terrible error of judgement'

[Old Greg]

Furore is over the fact he lambasted Barclays for avoiding tax while doing it himself, not the actual avoidance as everyone has said, they would do it if they could (in fact all those with a LtdCo here ARE doing it)

It was the same with Ken Livingstone, it wasn't so much the fact that he was using a limited company to avoid tax that I objected to, it was the hypocritical way he slated other people for avoiding tax and declared war on "rich bastards" who were doing it.

Surely hypocrisy is legal so we shouldn't moralise about it.

[DodgyAgent]

I think my interests are best served by living in a society which acts to reduce inequality amongst it's members. There is quite a lot of evidence that this is the case covering things like crime, mental health, physical health and so on, and as I say I have practical experience of living and working in a number of countries that reinforces this.

It may "act to" reduce inequality but it does'nt. As for your "quite a lot of evidence" there is more evidence that things could be vastly better if people like you bothered to question what the public sector deliver.

[Diver]

Of couse it isn't.

The NHS is amongst the most cost-effective in the world at reducing mortality rates, streets ahead of the largely-privatised US. A good thing, most believe.

Legality does not infer morality and vice versa. We live in a democracy and the legal system is a meant to be expression of the will of Parliament which in turn is meant to be repesentative of the will of the people. (It is not perfectly so, of course, but that is a separate debate). The will of Parliament is pretty clearly that we should contribute roughly 30% of income to fund our shared public services, on a progressive sliding scale, and most have no choice but to comply. The fact that some smart lawyer has found a way around this expression simply means that the law needs to be changed, regardless of what one thinks of the morality of those who exploit the loophole.

Agreed

Now shut up you pedant, you are ruining a perfectly good illogical argument.

Sheesh! some people

[doodab]

Right!

So some feckless waster that dodged school and has the mindset of parasitic wasp should be treated as equal to a heart surgeon who has spent 1/2 his life studying and training to reach their position and salary.

Quite honestly though, maybe you are more equal to someone with mental health problems if you honestly believe that we are all equal and should be treated equally.

No, that's not what I'm saying at all. I don't believe we are all equal, I do think there are quite a lot of cases where we should be treated equally regardless of economic status (access to the law, education, healthcare etc) and that society should act to reduce economic inequality and the reason I think that is because there is good evidence that doing so benefits all members of society, rich and poor.

The fact is, in a more equal society you would be a bit less uptight and a bit happier.

[d000hg]

I'm more suprised JC apologised, unless his accountant simply didn't tell him how the scheme worked and how little tax he'd end up paying... better to stick to your guns or simply refuse a statement and wait for the news to find the next target.

[doodab]

It may "act to" reduce inequality but it does'nt. As for your "quite a lot of evidence" there is more evidence that things could be vastly better if people like you bothered to question what the public sector deliver.

I do question what the public sector delivers, but I personally tend to focus on specific things rather than lumping everything together into "the public sector" as if the private sector contractor the council has hired who fail to empty my bins half the time is somehow related to the NHS doctors who saved my life at christmas or the teachers at my son's previous school who I thought weren't doing a very good job but that was largely due to the sort of kids and parents they had going there.

I agree that successive UK governments have failed quite miserably to tackle growing inequality in British society, I'd be happy to see any of this evidence you claim to have that everything would be better if "people like me" bothered to question what the public sector deliver, although I suspect that by "question" you mean harp on about relentlessly like a chimpanzee that has been stung on the bellend by a hornet like what you do.

[Diver]

No, that's not what I'm saying at all. I don't believe we are all equal, I do think there are quite a lot of cases where we should be treated equally regardless of economic status (access to the law, education, healthcare etc) and that society should act to reduce economic inequality and the reason I think that is because there is good evidence that doing so benefits all members of society, rich and poor.

The fact is, in a more equal society you would be a bit less bitter and twisted and uptight and a bit happier.

We do have equality of access, it's just that some of us are willing to work harder to improve our lives, and why should those of us who are willing to do so pay the way for those that aren't.
If it's a case of genuine health or mental problems fair enough, but I am paying so that scumbags and layabouts can buy drugs and drink and laze about all day.
If you want to sort the system out and reduce discontent, make passing a drink and drugs test compulsory for those claiming benefits, and if they fail, then no benefits.
Take the majority of the money away too and give credit type cards that can only purchase certain items (no alcohol or luxury items) at registered outlets.
Put those able to work on work programms cleaning up the country (supervising and managing this would create jobs).

I could go on but can't be bothered and don't have time.

Trying to sort out a new tax avoidance scheme I just found

[doodab]

We do have equality of access, it's just that some of us are willing to work harder to improve our lives, and why should those of us who are willing to do so pay the way for those that aren't.
If it's a case of genuine health or mental problems fair enough, but I am paying so that scumbags and layabouts can buy drugs and drink and laze about all day.

Yes, and that's social inequality at work making you unhappy. You want those people to be more like you. There are people who work very hard and people who don't, people who pay lots of tax and people who don't. In a more equal society (i.e. a less wide distribution of incomes) you would still have the rich and the poor but the gap between these extremes would close. There would be less dole bludgers because it would be easier for these people to improve their lot substantially with a little effort and you would be happier and less resentful.

[Diver]

. There would be less dole bludgers because it would be easier for these people to improve their lot substantially with a little effort and you would be happier and less resentful.

You forget that most of these would rather sit on their respective @rses and get paid for doing it.

We need to set up a breeding program for the UK.

Stop the untermensch from breeding.

Sorted :nazi:

[doodab]

You forget that most of these would rather sit on their respective @rses and get paid for doing it.

Some of them probably would, just as others would rather commit crime and others would rather freeload by not paying their taxes. They are all undesirables and all that we can do is manage them as best we can.

As an aside, when you injured your hand on that saw, were you not taken to an NHS hospital who presumably are at least partially responsible for saving your hand? And if so, would you trade your hand for a a £24k a year tax refund?