I began my final blogs in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2021 with the following:

“This is my last blog through 2017/18/19,21 which has been a momentous year in which the speed of change in many areas accelerated and most political leaders failed to keep up with it. In writing a blog I try to reach a definitive conclusion on an issue, but such is the speed of change that soon events have also left me behind. Here are a few afterthoughts on issues I addressed during the year, but where new information has come to light.”

As in previous years much of what I will be covering will tend to be of a fairly negative nature as it seems in many areas that it’s not just that we are not making progress, but we are going backwards and are in some kind of managed decline. However, on a personal level I recently had a very uplifting experience which has gone a long way to restore my faith in human nature if not in incompetent government. I will conclude this blog with that story so please bear with me while we go through the tough stuff and look forward to the good stuff.

Government

We used to look down on countries like Italy where there are frequent changes in political leadership. In the past six years since the Brexit referendum we’ve had five Prime Ministers and countless ministers in other jobs notably the Treasury, Education, and Energy. Just this year alone we’ve had three Prime Ministers, four Chancellors of the Exchequer and that would not be so serious if they had not all tried to change direction. As I explained in a blog during the year the Conservative government may have a majority in the House of Commons but that is based on the 2019 General Election manifesto. There is no mandate to come away from that manifesto unless one can argue that the seriousness of Covid does call for new actions.

Health

In last year’s Postscript I referred to the fact that I had had some health issues over the previous two years. None had been life-threatening, but all required some attention. If that attention came from the NHS the result was invariably poor and in one case involved an erroneous diagnosis. If the attention came from private sources the result was invariably successful. I pointed out that yes, I pay quite a lot of money to have private health insurance and other costs but also pay a lot of tax, a great part of which goes to the NHS, so I’m paying not only for my own health services and that of my family but also for that of quite a lot of other people. There is a common understanding that the NHS is underfunded, and we have a shortage of key staff especially nurses.

Earlier this year I did have to go into hospital for a couple of days for emergency treatment. I went into the local A&E on the advice of my private consultant with whom I’ve been having some treatment from which there had been a reaction. In the ambulance going to the hospital I explained in detail the situation I was in and a nurse wrote all that down in her iPad. Over the course of the 48 hours that I was in the hospital I had to repeat that explanation to 15 different people. On the first night I was in a public ward with five other gentlemen two of whom were admitted very late indeed which meant that we couldn’t get to sleep as they had consultations with doctors and nurses going into the small hours. Throughout the night nurses came in and out of the ward talking loudly, always leaving the door open so that their loud chatter and laughter in the corridor kept us awake all night. At 3 o’clock in the morning one particular nurse came in and at the top of voice shouted “I’M HERE!”

In the morning I was attended by a nurse who wanted to take a blood sample. That was fair enough. Half an hour later a second nurse came for the same reason. An hour later a third nurse came for the same reason. I complained to the consultant who with the help of the manager was able to transfer me to a private ward in a different part of the hospital where my experience was completely different. Yes, I was going to have to pay for this but it seemed to me incredible that in the same building under the same management but with a different attitude you get such entirely different results. There was no shortage of nurses, there was a shortage of management competence and organisation.

Taxation
still 
The burden of tax has reached its highest level in my lifetime and is likely to go higher but the productivity of government is so poor that despite these high levels of taxation the outcomes are nowhere near the levels expected whether we are talking about health as above or indeed any other area of government that I can think of. A friend of mine and regular reader of these blogs sent me the following illustrative story about how the tax system actually works.

“Suppose that once a week, 10 men go out for some beers and the bill for all ten comes to £100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this…

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay £1.
The sixth would pay £3.
The seventh would pay £7.
The eighth would pay £12.
The ninth would pay £18.
And the tenth man (the richest) would pay £59. So, that’s what they decided to do
.
The ten men drank in the bar every week and seemed quite happy with the arrangement until, one day, the owner caused them a little problem. “Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your weekly beer by £20. Drinks for the ten men would now cost just £80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So, the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. What about the other six men? The paying customers? How could they divide the £20 windfall so that everyone will get his fair share?

They decided to follow the principle of the tax system they had been using and they proceeded to work out the amounts each should now pay.

And so, the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (a 100% saving).
The sixth man now paid £2 instead of £3 (a 33% saving).
The seventh man now paid £5 instead of £7 (a 28% saving).
The eighth man now paid £9 instead of £12 (a 25% saving).
The ninth man now paid £14 instead of £18. (a 22% saving).
And the tenth man now paid £49 instead of £59. (a 16 percent saving.) Each of the last six was better off than before with the first four continuing to drink for free.

But, once outside the bar, the men began to compare their savings.” I only got 1 pound out of the £20 saving,” declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man, but he got £10!”  “Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a £1 too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more benefits than me!”

“That’s true!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get £10 back, when I only got £2? The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn’t get anything at all. This new tax system exploits the poor!” The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next week the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had their beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important – they didn’t have enough money between all of them to pay for even half of the bill!

The people who already pay the highest taxes will naturally get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy and they just might not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas, where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.”

My friend sent me this story earlier this year, before the Autumn Statement and so the levels of concentration that this story illustrates are even greater today and the percentages would be even more differentiated.

And now the good news…

In an extraordinary week at the end of November I had first a quite disheartening experience and then a quite uplifting one. My wife and I were invited to the new Lord Mayor’s Banquet at the Guildhall which was attended by the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Chancellor of the Exchequer, several other ministers, the Archbishop of Canterbury, several Ambassadors and High Commissioners and many other dignitaries as well as 600 or so other people. During the evening I mislaid my wallet. I had it when I arrived at the Guildhall because I had to present photo ID and so I took my driving licence out of my wallet and put it back in my pocket. We stayed late after the dinner for drinks but by the time we caught the train home the wallet was missing. We only got home about 2am but around that time a young man phoned us. His English was not particularly good, but he said that he had found the wallet and he would be prepared to bring it to our house the next day.

He came in the afternoon with his girlfriend and the wallet. It was entirely intact including £130 of cash. He claimed to have found it in the street in Whitechapel, so nowhere near Guildhall. He had seen my photo on a business card in the wallet, and I had reminded him in some way of his father who died when he was young and he felt he wanted to somehow respect the memory of his father by making good and bringing the wallet to our home. He was from Bangladesh and with the money he earned here in hospitality or delivery he helped his widowed mother. He refused to take any payment which of course we offered. In the end we were able to at least pay the cost of their train fares. After what had been a very difficult year this was a really uplifting story which increased our faith in human nature at the general level.

It only remains to wish all my readers a very Merry Christmas and a New Year in which you and yours get more of what you wish for and less of what you don’t need.  Thanks to all those who give me feedback which I really value. I’ll be back in 2023.