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In an ideal world you and I should not have to pay taxes. But as we do not live in such a place, taxed beyond the realms of fairness is our sorry lot in life.

Now I am not against income tax per se. I do understand why we have to be taxed. I understand all the things that would make our civilisation crumble into anarchy and chaos needs to be paid for through taxes. I don’t wholeheartedly agree with most of the way our money is spent by the useless idiots in the treasury, nobody does. But in fairness to the tax man, I pay my due willingly.

To a point.

You see, in my opinion overtime is mine. I do it because I want to not because I have to, for the few extra quid to buy stuff for the kids and at this time of year – Christmas. I have paid my dues on my basic wage. The taxman cometh and taketh his share, fair enough. But to my mind what I earn over and above this basic should be mine and mine alone.

Due to the loverly way Tax is worked out here in blighty, we do get a concession in the form of an allowance. This makes a percentage of your yearly earnings tax free. Yay, go us. But because of this our overtime earnings are taxed at the full amount – 22% in my case, as I don’t come anywhere near the 40% tax bracket (sob).

Now come on fairs fair. We get taxed to buggery on everything we do in this country (exceptions being; kids clothes and newspapers for example) and in some cases a system so fiendish and in my opinion downright wrong results in us paying tax on tax! I refer to cigarettes and petrol in particular. In these cases you pay duty on the goods, then that’s added to the actual cost of the item. Then, and this is the genius/dubious bit, the bastards charge you VAT on the full amount. You pay tax on tax.

I was going to say “OK lets be sensible and agree to something like 10% on overtime earnings” but, and excuse my French, fuck it. I am venting my spleen. No tax on anything worked over and above your contracted weekly hours (37.5 in my case)

Overtime is mine, mine and mine. I, and indeed you dear reader should be keeping that money. The taxman will get a share sooner or later anyway. You spend it they tax it. It’s wrong that you get taxed on earning it then taxed on spending it.

Let us have a little more of what we earn. Overtime tax free means more money in our pocket. Which means more spending, which in turn means more people directly benefiting from the money and Gordon and his chums still get a slice. More money in circulation and not taxed and locked away or spent on crap means a better standard of living for us all.

So Overtime tax free. I think so.

“did I say overtime enough?”

Tags: taxes, taxed, income tax, treasury, overtime, tax free

Oh, McDonalds why do you punish me so. Special Edition! Yeah, special edition, meaning ‘not for very long’. Double Quarter Pounders at McDonalds on the menu and now on my ‘Oh jebus they’re sweet’ list.

You see, I’m a big Burger King fan. I love the XL Bacon Double Cheeseburgers. I can’t have them very often for three reasons. BK is: too far away; too expensive and Kid 2 prefers McDonalds, for me to enjoy the succulent meaty treat on a regular enough basis.

Now although I simply love the breakfast menu at McDonalds, the salads are great and the Deli Sandwiches are sublime, I’m not a big fan of the burgers. When you just want a burger and you are forced to go to McDonalds by the ankle biters, you certainly miss out. They are too ‘wet’, too small, too bland and too sloppy. I like the way BK do their burgers, succulent on the inside and slightly charred on the outside, they taste of meat, and all the crap in the bun doesn’t over-power that loverly beefy, meaty taste.

Now we come to the McDonalds Double Quarter Pounder - Incidentally that makes it a half pounder; if my rudimentary maths is correct, so why not call it that? – I had one of these delights a few weeks ago. It was cooked to perfection, not wet, not small, not bland and not sloppy. What are they playing at? This creation is Burger King tasty. I love them. You could actually taste the beef! Also for the first time in the history of fast food photography the actual product you get looks as good as or better than the advertising pictures.

So I thought to myself, yeah it’s a one-off. Not so. A week later, “what do you want for your tea kids?” At the counter I ordered the happy meal for kid 2 and the McChicken sandwich meal for kid 1…

Note to McDonalds – Put McChicken sandwiches in the happy meals. Both my two love ‘em but one of the little monkeys still insists on a happy meal. So I have to buy a happy meal and an extra McChicken butty. Oh wait, that’s your point. D’oh.

…and my Double Quarter meal. And to my astonishment it was the same. A glorious burger worthy of praise and worthy of eating with various comments like: yum, sweet, nice, loverly, what’s going on? Etc. Ah-ha, it’s gotta be the Sunday staff. But no, I went in on a Thursday and they are like that whoever cooks them. Bang goes my fecking diet!

So a question arises, why are the normal everyday burgers still crap? Beats me. I will however, enjoy them while they are around. I know fast food isn’t de rigueur at the moment and is frowned upon as not being healthy food to feed your kids, or yourself for that matter. But as part of a balanced diet, and not indulging more than once a week, I don’t see the harm in it. And I like it, it’s my body my choice.

In conclusion I would like to ask the powers that be to ditch the Big Mac, which lets face it isn’t big, and have the Double Quarters instead. It may scupper my diet plans but that’s my problem. Damn, I’ve just looked at the clock and it’s too late for me to walk into town and grab a burger, a DQP obviously, aaarrrgggghhh. I want one.

I also like the fries!… Oh my waistline