As much as I do love living in good old Blighty I do sometimes wonder why I bother staying here, I do occasionally think that the country is, in fact, just one colossal elaborate practical joke...and the joke, of course, is on us. I know i'll be saying absolutely nothing new if I were to pop the phrase 'Rip-Off Britain'...we all know that for some reason i've not been able to fathom all of us in good old 'Great' Britain pay 10 times more than the rest of the world for...well...everything, but for the enterprising purchaser there *used* to be a way to circumvent this irritating little fact through the wonders of the web and through importing stuff. Now I, obviously, was one of those people...unhappy paying £280 for something that I could order from America for £80 (plus about £40 postage) I would get loads of stuff from overseas and happily save myself a fortune...but alas no more, it seems that the government isn't happy with the ridiculous amounts of cash that they see fit to steal from me at every turn and that they want more...specifically they've now decided to actively penalise anyone who actually wants to get a better deal for themselves by adding a 'postage tax' to any item that's worth over £30...and what exactly is the reason for this tax then? Surely it's there to pay for speedier delivery...erm, no...well, perhaps it's for nice postage options like order tracking?...nope...erm, postal insurance?...don't be silly! No this wonderful tax is there for no reason other than making the item more expensive than it would have been in this country anyway...it would seem that the notion of 'competitive trade' is something that this country just can't be fucked with so instead of actually trying to give the consumer a better deal they'll just keep their profit margins through the roof and we'll be charged yet another pointless tax to punish us for being *so* unreasonable as to want to pay what everyone else in the world pays for things.

They must be laughing at us, this is the biggest joke ever...surely...we're penalised at every possible step in this country...we've got to go to work to earn money to live...our earnings are then taxed massively...then we need to put the money somewhere so into a bank it goes...but, oops, that involves yet more charges and penalties so down goes the money again...now, we need to actually *get* to work so how do we do that? well there's always public transport I suppose but since that invariably means cramped smelly terrible conditions, sky high fees to go any distance further than the bottom of the street you're on, breakdowns due to shit maintenance and crippling delays that's not an option really (and no matter how much Gordon Brown insists we all use public transport it's simply not viable unless he's prepared to actually commit some money to it...he can't just say 'it works...use it' when it clearly doesn't)...so unless you live within walking distance of work that means a car...which means paying at least £5000 more for one than anywhere else...then there's the road tax...then, of course, the highly taxed fuel...and of course the shadow taxes of any charges the police see fit to throw at you...so you need a loan now to cover all this...and the bank won't give you a loan without insurance of course...which they add to the loan amount and *then* charge massive amounts of interest to of course, something which in my case added £10,000 to the total! all for absolutely no effort at all...*sigh* I could go on but I believe everyone already knows all of this...and i'm only depressing myself further now :)

But at least we're the proud owners of all the best services in the world yes? I mean that stands to reason really doesn't it? We pay *that* much for everything it *must* be the best yes? Erm...well actually no...in fact it seems to be amongst the worst...Public Transport? dire...Police Force? ineffectual list makers...Roads? complete shambles...Health Service? erm it's a nice idea but let's face it it doesn't really work anymore does it? If you actually want to get any treatment you need health insurance now anyway, how's that different from other countries? so let's drop the pretence shall we? It *might* have worked if we only had the people from this country trying to buck the system but when you've got people from all over the world travelling here specially to buck the system I think it's time to pull the plug...in fact while we're at it lets just give in altogether shall we? I'm sick of hearing the pointless justifications for people raping me of my cash and this whole illusion of freedom is pissing me off now...I mean i'm not allowed to own a house, i'm penalised for working hard and earning a decent amount of money, i'm penalised for needing a car, i'm penalised for wanting nice things...fuck it, I can't be arsed anymore...how's about I just *give* everything I own to everyone in exchange for them leaving me alone...in fact I think i'll go and become a citizen of another country then emigrate here...i'll get looked after then ;)