Having just reached our fiftieth “Ripped-Off Britons” cartoon in the Guardian, and with the imminent end of 2010, we would like to wish our readers a better New Year than the last one. Why are we so mean-minded? Why not wish you all prosperity? Prosperity is a dubious thing to be wished in a Britain where prosperity has become a threat wielded by the well connected to fend off justice and regulation.Britain’s treatment of BAE Systems, our country’s biggest remaining manufacturing company, perhaps provides the clearest example. An arms dealer whose defence against prosecution for corruption is not innocence, but loss of prosperity and jobs. A...
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LATEST: Think you’re paying less tax now? The withdrawal of Working and Child Tax Credits leaves low earners paying a 73% marginal tax rate, and medium earners paying even more
...And this government says it cuts taxes for poor working households! -
RIP-OFF NEWS ROUND-UP, OUR PICK OF THE LAST WEEK'S MEDIA
Drug firm Novartis tried to 'scupper' trials of a cheaper version of eye medicine
Has Austerity caused the UK’s first decline in life expectancy in 20 years?
Kellogg's effectively paid no corporation tax in the UK in 2013, +more stories... -
YOU'RE FIRED?! We are already nearly the most easily fired people in the developed world
Only the US and Canada make it easier, says the OECD’s Worker Protection Index -
EYE OPENER: Housing Equity Withdrawal took off in 1979. Since then almost all UK growth has suspiciously equalled the amount we took out. Looks like it’s pensions next
Osborne’s new rules allow you to spend your entire pension pot now. Same mistake, different pot -
DID YOU KNOW? MPs are getting a 10% pay hike in May, to £74k
...and in 2010, 137 MPs put family members on parliament's payroll. Now it's soared to 167