Are our politicans just headline grabbers, do they ever mean big business to abide by the “rules” like everyone else, and are we ,the people, going to stand by and let capitalist culture defraud us? Will they ever support transparency in tax legislation (ie laws) and pay as they sell?

As all sales are done by till and we have the technology to move money electronically, the tax should go straight to the exchequer just like money comes out of our bank account when we use a debit card to pay for goods.

And yet once again we have another headline about price fixing  in favour of big industry. This time it is the Energy Industry.

Price fixing is cited as “a grey area” by ofgem and the financial services authority, according to whistle blower Mr Seth Freedman, and this comes as no surprise to me. Having studied economics and followed business for years I realised that watchdogs and the FSA in reality have no power at all. This is due to a lack of legislation to do with transparency and accountability in this sector and others.

Why again has no one used the audit word? With price fixing between other energy companies, where are the auditors? Is it just that now we have fired all the tax inspectors, we have no staff at the inland revenue?  It needs to be said that this department is, again, powerless to deal with big business- due once more to the lack of legislation in law/parliament.

Mr Freedman went on to say that market is worth 300 billion pounds. So, doing a bit of maths, tax for that should be 75 billion as business tax is 25% . But as business tax collected is only 48 billion, even if we were to say that the energy sector is the only sector paying tax a deficit still remains of 27 billion not paid to the exchequer.

Are we, the people, not tired of hearing how we are getting a raw deal from the politicians, the regulators and the industry itself?  The Tories have billed the General Anti-Abuse Rule, which is sadly not fit for purpose ie closing the loop holes.

The labour MP, Mr Meather has just brought a private members bill into parliament to close loop holes and have transparency in business called The General Anti Tax-Avoidance Principle bill. And yet, the labour party has not supported the E.U. who have proposed the implementation of the EU Remit (Regulation on Wholesale Energy Markets Integrity and Transparency) which would giving Ofgem the powers to act against market fraud.

Currently, the power of the law is limited and thus we are unable to do as this EU remit says (and Mr murphy from: http://www.taxresearch.org.uk  has being talking about for years) and at present it does not have this power due largely to a lack of support for business taxes and legislation, and the fact that the bill has not being passed.

Business tax is never used when we talk of tax, it is always income tax.

Caroline Flint seems to be shirking her responsibility to the people instead of talking about legislation and supporting the EU remit. When speaking to members of her own party on the subject of financial legislation, she suggests that energy be pooled and sold off to more companies, stimulating more competition in order to bring down prices. This is a good thing but does nothing about the price fixing in the first place, or gaining any tax for the exchequer.

In conclusion, I personally think that Parliament (with the few exceptions like Mr Meather) is a complete waste of time. Without the education of the masses, and the constant lobbying by the people to their local MP’s, they will never work for the people. Big business has bought the law. It is time that we, as individuals, make a difference, because it is only we who ever will.