Hodge hassled

Over at the Palace of Westminster, it looks like it's time to break out the coffee and biscuits:

Tourism Minister Margaret Hodge was involved in an extraordinary slanging match with one of the leaders of the British holiday industry at a cocktail reception on the House of Commons terrace.

Guests were shocked as Mrs Hodge stormed off after clashing with Philip Green, chairman of UK Inbound, a trade group that encourages foreigners to take holidays in Britain.

She was furious after guests booed her speech. One heckled: 'You don't know what you are talking about,' and she fired back: 'Yes I do, you are totally wrong.'

Mr Green had enraged Mrs Hodge by accusing the Government of driving away foreign tourists with 'high taxes disguised as green initiatives, ridiculous red tape and a schizophrenic approach to air travel'.

She stormed: 'I came here for a pleasant summer evening on the terrace, not to be lectured.'

Mrs Hodge then claimed British hotels were overpriced and big visitor attractions offered poor service - and left the moment her speech was over.

One guest said: 'I have never seen anything like it on the terrace before - there was heckling and even booing.'

I can't profess to be an expert on the state of the British tourism industry, but if the government's handling of tourism has been anything close to its handling of the rest of the economy, and, indeed, the nation as a whole, then Philip Green probably has every right to feel aggrieved. And you can hardly blame him for acting as he did. After all, if you had the opportunity to tell Margaret Hodge, or any other government minister, what you think about the way they're running the country, would you pass it up?

But in any event, isn't the mental image triggered by this story absolutely wonderful? I wouldn't generally advise overindulgence in hubristic schadenfreude, but surely the thought of the odious Hodge being jeered and then throwing a childish tantrum merits at least one discreet chuckle!

It's the government's money now...

I vaguely recall that when Ken Clarke was delivering his budgets as Chancellor of the Exchequer, he used to produce a bottle of champagne, and brandish it at the opposition benches, while announcing that, owing to tax cuts, it was "the last of the more expensive stuff". An amusing gesture, but surely he would have done better to wait until after the tax cut, and to have then gone out and bought the first of the cheaper stuff? On the other hand, for Clarke's successor Alistair Darling, getting the drinks in prior to the budget would make more sense:

Big increases in duty on alcohol and high-polluting cars have been announced by Chancellor Alistair Darling.

In his first Budget he put 4p on a pint of beer, 14p on a bottle of wine and 55p on a bottle of spirits. Duty on a packet of cigarettes is up 11p.

He announced a one-off £950 tax on the most polluting new cars but put a 2p rise in fuel duty back six months.

Wow. Thanks, O benevolent one!

Of course, it's not just drinkers, smokers, and drivers who are handing over more and more of their money to the government. Between 2000 and 2007, government spending as a share of GDP grew from less than 38% to over 45% - a quite phenomenal increase. The government is helping itself to more and more of our money each year. Consider this, from the Telegraph:

Middle-class families are paying an extra £1,250 a year after suffering the sharpest rise in their tax bill of any leading Western country over the past five years, figures show.

In a major blow for Alistair Darling hours ahead of his first Budget, comprehensive research has shown that the middle classes have shouldered one of the world's biggest increases in their tax since 2002.

During the same period the average tax burden in most countries actually declined, according to the report from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD].

But British families with two children and one earner on the average wage saw their tax bill increase by some £1,243 between 2002 and 2007, based on the current median annual wage of £19,856.

The Telegraph asks its readers: "What should Alistair Darling do for the middle classes?". My suggestion: shoot himself in the head. And, to ensure that all sections of the community are represented, he should first shoot Gordon Brown for the working classes, and a cabinet colleague of his choice (Jacqui Smith, perhaps?) for the upper classes.

Of course, the Tories wouldn't be much, if any, better. They're committed to matching Labour's spending programme for at least three years. It seems that all three main parties regard the public as little more than a piggy bank, to be tipped upside down and rattled every time they want some more money to play with and, generally, waste.

The failure of Cameronism

Isn't it ironic that, after all the endless attacks that Cameron and his minions have launched upon the sanity, intelligence, and moral decency of the true right, and after all the endless crap they spouted about "modernisation", it was a traditional conservative pledge to cut taxes that saved their bacon (for the time being, at least)? Why, it's almost as if traditional conservatism has more popular support than Cameronite liberalism!