this sums it up
Facebook, I couldn’t have said this better myself.
Welcome to Catch
a story of coffee, music and football
tax dodge no thanks
Tim, you’re not that political are you? It’s not a question I get asked much (if at all) but the answer would be the same: not really. Still, I have my moments. An example of which follows, with certain details removed because this after all sits firmly in the public domain…
At the end of January, my company sent me a letter complete with glossy brochure telling me about a change to my pension. They, like many other companies were introducing a system called SMART where by the company pays my part of my pension contributions each month and then reduces my salary by the same amount.
Put simply, it’s a tax dodge. If my salary is less then I pay less national insurance. But Tim, this would mean you’d actually take home more pay each month wouldn’t it? Actually Yes. But that’s good you say…
I have only a handful of objections. Firstly, yes it benefits me, but nowhere in the literature does it say the No. 1 reason the scheme is being introduced, because it also saves the company money, as they pay less national insurance as well. If the benefits were only for the employee do you think that the company would spend money to setup such a scheme, I think not. It’s just a side effect that we employees will benefit.
Secondly, I don’t believe the company acted fairly in setting up the scheme. By default you’re included in the scheme unless you choose to opt out. I believe that any change should be opt-in. Again, if only the employees were to benefit, this is how it would be. I’d like to print a section of the letter I received:
“The timetable for this proposal is:
From mid-January to late March: HR teams will meet with employees to get feedback on this proposal.
26 March 2007: marking the end of the consultation period, a follow-up letter will be issued to all members to confirm the introduction of SMART (if agreed)
1 April 2007: if SMART is adopted, no further action will be required from those members who choose to take part in it, as they will be automatically enrolled in SMART. Those members who choose not to join SMART will need to return the opt-out form to company name’s pension department by 30 March 2007.”
Note a number of things here. I deliberately held this post back for nearly two months in order to first give my ‘feedback’ to HR when they came to talk to me and while I appreciate that it doesn’t say they will meet with ‘all’ employees, and with the quality of our communications infrastructure not withstanding, I expected a little more than the silence that I got. As far as I am concerned (and this is what I would have written two months ago) the company fully intended to introduce it and any proposed period of consultation was a sham. When this Monday came, I received an email from HR reminding me to send back my opt-out form if I so wished. Not so much of a follow-up letter as such and it certainly didn’t mention that it was confirming any decision, except by implication. I did receive a letter today confirming that the company was going ahead with the scheme, but as it was dated yesterday and all opt-out forms had to be received BY TODAY, what’s the point. Should I have been waiting for the letter to make a decision then it would already be too late.
Thirdly, I simply don’t agree with it. National Insurance primarily goes towards paying for the state pension along with paying for state benefits and other things. I don’t believe that we should be taking money away from the state, especially from an area such as pensions where we’re constantly being told to save to avoid being poor as well as old in the future. I especially don’t believe that anyone or any company should be taking money away from this system to help increase their profits and or to pass it on to shareholders. It’s unethical and there is no excuse (before anyone comes along and says that everyone else is doing it). Sadly, it is human nature.
Which is why (and please don’t say you’ve not guessed by now) that I returned my form to opt out of the system. You can shove your tax dodge, I’m not going to be a part of it.
the budget
Talking of boxes, and this isn’t a post about Noel, this week marked the budget, traditionally a high point in the satirical comedy calendar and possibly the only time in the year when everyone is interested in politics.
What I’ve noticed is that Gordon Brown seems to be basing his budget speeches on those of Apple boss Steve Jobs. There would be time when Steve would add ‘and it’s available now’ in the same way that Gordon would put up fuel tax quicker than you could get to the petrol station to fill up with the cheaper stuff. Nowadays it’s different. Steve announces products 6 months ahead only to be eclipsed by the resident of No. 11. ‘I’m lowering income tax’ says Gordon before adding ‘in April 2008′. It’s a smart move. He makes the headlines, wins the hearts of the populace and it means that he can be out of the job in time to force his successor to admit that it was all a lie and it was never going to happen. He even makes the time we’re going to have to wait for the iphone look small.
What I don’t agree with is the title: “Building Britain’s long-term future: Prosperity and fairness for families” because by abolishing the lower tax rate he’s making poorer people poorer. But once you’ve taking into account the dozens of tax credits and other little handouts that not even he understands, we’re supposed to believe that everyone is going to be better off, or just back to square one.
What I won’t argue with is the reduction in road tax for drivers of environmentally friendly small car’s like mine. £35 is all I have to pay next year which is a fair whack less than the £110 with my old car last year.
So here’s to the budget 2007, “Building Britain’s long-term future: Confusing the nation while I slip into power!”
starsailor - love is here
I’ve loved the track ‘Good Souls’ since I first heard it in 2001 back when I was happy listening to Radio 1, It’s an uplifting anthem from a band who I’m constantly told are boring and depressing. I disagree, listening to Starsailor and in particular ‘love is here’ has always (at least in a small way) cheered me up.
Back in those days, when I was by my own admission a late developer when it came to music, this is one of the first serious albums I bought (I won’t try and put a number on it for the pure knowledge that I’d be wrong) and I had the privilege of hearing it live for the first time in the perfect setting, as the sun set on the first of the revived Isle of Wight Festivals back in 2002.
For me, whether down to that set, due to the cover art or through some imagery that my mind conjures whenever I hear it, this album will forever remind me of the sun setting on a summers day. It will always be a summer album. While some of the contents are anything but the bright, fun and other words we associate with the middle of the year that doesn’t seem to make any difference. It’s still great. Which is why it’s one of the few cds that are permanently stored in my car, because I know that I’ll always be happy to listen to it.
It’s here in the box because to it’s my perfect sunset record, it brightens me up whatever life if like and because compared to other more recent albums, it’s timeless.
what’s with the remix
The answer probably is that I simply don’t get it and that I’m totally uncool for doing so, but I really don’t get why certain djs insist on playing remixes of tracks rather than the original.
We were sat in 60 million postcards again last night and after going there a number of times, I still can’t get the measure of the place. Sure it’s a nice place but the music infuriates me. Every now and again I’ll hear something I recognise (and most of the things I recognise I like) but the vast majority of the stuff being played last night (as on previous occasions) were remixes of current or recent tracks. My problem is such, most of these remixes all feature the same heavy drum beat which makes the rest of the song (you know, useful bits like the melody or the words) impossible to hear. Example, ‘Standing in the way of control’ by The Gossip, it’s a good tune, but when you stick a different bass line and drum track on it and as a result I can only hear half the words and even less of the tune, I might as well be listening to a different song. If you’re playing the song for people to listen to then let them hear something other than a repetitive drum beat. The same sentiment goes for making people dance, I’d rather dance to something where I can actually hear the tune. If you’re doing none of these and are instead just playing a bit of background music so people can chat to each other if they want, then why don’t you turn the music down a bit!
After all, it’s not like most of the tunes don’t have substantial drum beats and bass lines anyway!
make another world
Ignoring the albums that I’d rather forget, Idlewild’s ‘100 Broken Windows’ was one of the first albums I remember buying. Fast forward to today and I’ve got 5 of them (Idlewild albums not albums in general). This introduction can therefore be shortened to thus, I’m a fan.
Now there was a little criticism over the musical direction that the band had started to take over the last few albums. It seemed that some people just didn’t like the rock/folk cross. Since then, Roddy’s gone off and made his folk album ‘My Secret Is My Silence’ and come back to get on with what Idlewild do best, sub 40 minute rock albums. This is good stuff.
While I first bought their stuff for it’s loud, energitic appeal, personally I didn’t mind the more folky stuff (you know, it’s very scottish) but I’m happy that we’ve gone back full circle. I’m also happy to say that with the exception of the Kaiser Chiefs, this is the first new album this year that I’ve really liked, meaning that I do get annoyed after 35 minutes when it’s all over. Another bonus (at least for some) is that the folk sounds haven’t all been erased, with the final few tracks still hinting at the past direction.
The stand out tracks for me are ‘No Emotion’ and ‘You and I are both away’ but there’s not a bad track in the 10. If only it came in the basic cd case with the black and white card sleeve that I loved from the first few albums.
welcome to the citadel
I know I only changed the wallpaper around here a week or so ago but I like nothing more than to fiddle with the design, constantly. The place needed a change and the last one just wasn’t big enough.
This is officially catch version 5 and it’s a work in progress (or beta if you like). The basics are there (mostly copied straight out of the last version) but the jury is still out on the final colours & layout and it’s still missing the finishing touches and the following larger items:
The footer area will be filled with useful and useless information at a later date. At the moment it contains only my current playlist as that was the only content I knew would definitely be there. Getting there.- The photo galleries don’t look right in IE because of the ongoing differences between it and other, better browsers like firefox. Still my stats show that over 60% of people viewing the site use IE so I’m going to have to cater for them.
- I intend to make more use of sifr to replace some of the worse looking header text.
I’m also hoping to make subtle use of swifr to jazz up some of the pages.Done. Check out the about me page.
As a result, some parts of the site may look wrong in various browsers, other parts may simply not work. The site history and other articles will reappear when I’ve paid them the attention they deserve.
For those of you interested, the name citadel was taken from the building in Half-Life 2 primarily for reasons of shape only. It is also just a good name. Enjoy.
science is fun #3
In advance of tonight’s lunar eclipse, I thought I’d have another attempt at convincing the world that science is fun. Above is a photo of Saturn taken by the joint nasa/esa Cassini-Huygens probe (the same one that took this photo which featured heavily on the news this morning).
These photos and more can be found at Nasa’s Planetary Photojournal (http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov) which is another site you can bookmark under ’sites to waste time browsing’.