the move (the dog)

horsemouth was getting anxious about doing the move. 

he's really got to get on and do the move. 

he has been living out in the wilds for more than two years now (effectively) but has still not done the move.

of course no sooner has he started thinking about it than persecuting demons start popping into existence (persecuting demons of the 'frustrator' variety). pretty soon he imagined fights over parking space etc. etc. once again every hand was raised against him etc. etc. etc. 

it is surprising that this is how it is for him. it looks (on the surface) as if he gets stuff done. but really, deep down, he's a filthy procrastinator. 

meanwhile he got in another walk on the common. there was rain (but there was also sun). he picked some tomatoes, a cucumber and a pepper in the green house. he sat over by the far greenhouse and listened to the world at one news. 

there was a discussion of property taxes - taxes on property are low when compared with taxes on transactions - VAT, taxes upon wages, NI, capital gains tax. 

of course there is considerable resistance to the idea of tax on property. look at the rates which led to the poll tax which lead to council tax. look at inheritance tax. look at stamp duty. 

of course as a poor person with no property horsemouth should be in favour of a tax on property but his general theory is that it should be paid by the richest of the rich (and then downwards from there as needs be). otherwise the danger is that it taxes the mean and meagre assets of the poor and removes their assets from them by means of that taxation, transferring their assets to the rich (who can afford them because they are rich). 

now (of course) in the marxist view of things this is  inevitable - the proletariat are precisely those who have no assets and so nothing to sell but their labour and that anyone who has assets now will watch them being stripped away. and yet for much of horsemouth's life that was not the case. many poor people (and people of modest means) were accumulating assets. 

horsemouth wonders about the effect on the communal endeavour will be if there is a tax upon housing assets - will social housing be excluded? 

horsemouth supposes that labour have a great need to raise taxation and plenty of political capital they can burn with people higher up the income scale. thus they might end up doing the progressive thing out of desperation rather than out of political commitment. after all they have just slightly less than four years before they have to face a general election again (no later than 15th august 2029).  

there are plenty of other opportunities to gauge the mood of the electorate and these are not likely to encourage in labour the belief that they can win a second term. 

further the only 'real' issue at the moment with the electorate is immigration (allegedly) - therefore labour have carte blanche to get on and vote through new taxes (they cannot get any more unpopular than they are going to be anyway). 

who knows labour may even attempt to get some variety of proportional representation through (now there's an interesting piece of political calculation).  the next election will already extend the vote to 16 and 17 year olds so maybe that's a bridge too far. 

last night bell-ringing and then the dog. the dog was busy (pool competition). there was a discussion of RVs and the works going on over by the old trout.