Bonus time for bootleggers?

(I'm posting this on behalf of the Lovely One.)

So it's only been a few weeks but I'm still yet to be bowled over by the repealing of detrimental legislation which was piled on this country by the combination of Brussels and the ghastly ex-Labour government.


ID cards were satisfying but quite frankly I'm hungry for more. We had thirteen years of incompetence and those people running the country into the ground and what I'm looking for is something more, well, groundbreaking. As far as I can tell it's still illegal to do things which are normal things to do like, for example, smoke inside, and at the same time we have the Lib Dems trying to force the utterly ruinous rocketing of CGT which people like Jackart don't seem to think so terrible for some reason. I've no idea why that is except, like a second marriage, it's a triumph of hope over experience.


A rise in CGT will stop people investing in, well, most things. Second homes which are pension provisions especially since Gordon Brown raped our pension pots. Shares which boost many areas of economic life through injections of liquidity. Even for demand side economists who worship the Income Equation, a generous boost of 'I' is just what the doctor ordered in these economically uncertain times.


But here's a basic thing that the coalition could do, which wouldn't really need much effort and would be a step in the right direction both for our civil liberties and small businesses.

SALES of blackmarket cigarettes could outstrip legal sales in Britain unless ­Labour’s draconian over-the-counter ban is reversed for shopkeepers.


In Canada a similar ban saw contraband sales in parts of the country overtake shop sales within 12 months of the new law coming in.

If the same thing happened in Britain, hundreds of newsagents would go to the wall and the Treasury would lose out on millions more in unpaid taxes.

One hardly expects a Labour government to do anything remotely sensible which is part of the reason why we're in the mess we are in. But I'm afraid that a Tory majority coalition should not have the excuse of incompetence to hide behind.


They are supposed to be the party which abhores excessive regulation and wants to promote freedoms and small businesses. I do hope that this marriage of convenience with the Lib Dems does not turn out to be more like an affaire de coeur with a mere mistress having undue influence.


It's about time that this country had a government with a vague grasp on the right thing to do. And this one seems pretty simple to me.