Mister Bean - In Charge of the Money

In the UK the person in charge of our economy is called Mr. Darling, and he is the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Where money is concerned he is the main man. Our cause is not helped by the fact that Mr. Darling has a name that seems designed for a particularly British form of comedy. This is compounded by the fact that he looks exactly like Mister Bean. In fact, after listening to his budget earlier in the week, I now know he is Mister Bean!

Without a hint of irony he told us that we were doing very well economically, and that although the world economy in general was going to have a rough year or two, we, the British, were better placed than anyone else to sail serenely through the choppy seas to come. Forgive me continuing with metaphors, but what planet is he on?

We are borrowed to the hilt despite our having an incredibly strong economic inheritance from the sainted Maggie Thatcher era. On top of which this Government have spent, or mis-spent, depending on your political point of view, enormous sums of our money gathered in from our oil and gas revenues over the last two decades, now, sadly, nearing their end. In addition to which the Government are about to exceed their self imposed borrowing targets ranking us amongst the biggest borrowers in the world, ranking us, per capita, amongst those economic powerhouses, Egypt and Hungary.

If this were not enough our tax burdens are at historic highs, albeit more indirectly gathered than previously. Last in this sad list is the fact that the Government is squandering a disproportionately high percentage of the GDP. From beginning as a lean, mean fighting machine we are morphing into a socialist workers paradise, with the transition hidden behind political spin.

Darling is dressing up many of his actions as plans to decrease climate change. That's how he can legitimize charging huge amounts of additional tax on "gas guzzler" cars, and, in October, yet more tax on gas itself. This is on top of the already huge tax burden on petrol we pay now, up to about 80% of the approximately £5 ($10) per gallon, already on our gas station forecourts. He is also presiding over a ruinous housing policy which he will directly manage to ruin, and that seemed impervious to this Government's mismanagement, until the American sub-prime lending bust. That wasn't Darling's fault, but he then screwed up the British end by acting with startling indecision until it was too late, and then went all macho on us, when he should have been negotiating behind closed doors. He is a grade A prat!

Those of you who have not been to the UK in a while would be astonished at our cost of living. London and Tokyo compete for the unwanted title of the world's most expensive city.

I am astounded that the patience of the British public continues to hold despite never ending price increases on everything including water, power, mortgages, food, transportation and taxes etc. Not to worry though, Mister Bean, he tells us everything is great.

Mister Bean might look funny, and sound daft, but he is actually Count Dracula, and he is sucking the financial blood out of our country. How does the saying go, you can fool all of the people some of the time, some of the people all the time, but you can't fool all the people........