EDITOR'S CHOICE NEWS Ticket machine out of action after robbery Youngster climbs his way into national top spot Royal date for Good Samaritan SPORT Blues beaten at Forest Green The Teams are in Chesham swoop for international INTERVIEWS "Street dance is about the music" Artist selected again for Royal Academy show Aristrocratic memoirs COMPETITIONS Win Disney/Pixar WALL•E game for Wii Win tickets for A Swell Party or Gershwin and Friends Addicks and Eagles mascot competition VOTE Is it fair to detain terror suspects for 42 days without charge? Yes No GET OUR NEWS BY E-MAIL Just register

Most read Comments 1 Ticket machine out of action after robbery 2 Firefighters rescue toddler stuck in loo seat 3 Remembering the old school days 4 TV wildlife presenter in climbing accident 5 Youngster climbs his way into national top spot 6 Royal date for Good Samaritan 7 Blues beaten at Forest Green 8 Hughenden comes together for day of "merrie" fun 9 Options announced for Beaconsfield's last major redevelopment 10 Home-grown author appears at Waterstone's Today | 7 Days 1 Schools chief's fury over SATS "disgrace" 2 Workers picket council offices 3 Boy racers could have cars seized 4 Woman, 21, punched after car collision 5 Banger off on 10,000 mile journey 6 Expenses revealed for south Bucks MPs 7 Staff walk out at two councils 8 Police wear crime cameras 9 Hunt for bright orange raid car 10 Man assaulted outside Wycombe Railway Station

Comment | Read Comments (3)

I BROKE a new personal record this week - £51 for a tank of petrol.

It's probably not that remarkable to most of you, but I own just a small car and don't ever go that far, so it's amazing to spend half a ton just to fill up for a routine week of driving.

But I find a lot of prices amazing these days. I've grown into one of those old moaners I used to detest who complain about how expensive things have become.

"It wasn't like that in my day," I can hear myself say. "I remember when a pint of bitter was two shillings and when council tax was just £150 per household."

I jest of course in respect of council tax. I remember not so long ago, 1991 to be precise, when I moved into High Wycombe and it was around £47 per month for a three-bed home.

Now I'm probably going to have to stump up almost £170 for a three bed house - and for what?

However, it is widely accepted that council tax is the modern-day scandal for middle England.

Every year, hard-working people are forced by law, and ultimate threat of jail, to pay above-inflation increases - while their public services keep on getting cut.

But if it was only council tax we had to worry about, we could probably just get by.

Like most of you, I seem to work harder for less reward as prices soar for essential amenities.

Take electricity and gas. What could be more essential than keeping warm, cooking dinner and lighting up your home? Yet the costs get ever more prohibitive.

We're a family of three and I pay just over £100 per month for these services. I was actually in credit for a while, so I was shocked at the weekend to discover I had suddenly accumulated a £160 debt to my utility company despite my regular payments.

"Well, it's been a cold winter," they told me, as they offered to put me on a new cheaper rate.

A cheaper rate sounded good. But, er, when they looked to see what I'd save, they told me I'd actually be paying more.

Confused? Yes, I was, until they explained the normal rate had soared a day earlier, but they could put me on a new lower rate that was actually more expensive than my original rate.

And please don't get me on to the subject of water, and water meters. Frankly, I believe it's obscene to have to pay through the nose as we do for a natural resource, and effectively to be discouraged from having baths and drinking fluid because it's cost prohibitive.

Yet twice a year, colossal water bills land on the mat along with the mega-insurance charges in case you drop dead and your family can't afford to pay off all these basic charges. And there's more, so many bills that I could probably employ a full time accountant just to sit in a chair by my letter-box, waiting for them to drop.

Meanwhile, I walk around in a glazed state, hunched with worry looking like a demented version of Quasimodo as I repeat to myself: "The bills, the bills..."

We live in a world where the harder you work and the more you try to better yourself, the more you are made to pay.

It's a world inhabited by thousands of other people living in the margins, who somehow evade the council tax and the huge utility bills. They rarely, if ever work, but still find cash to drink and to smoke themselves to an expensive NHS death.

I've said it before and there's been nothing to change my mind: the bone idle have inherited the earth. And the rest of us are too busy trying to pay off our debts to do anything about it.

12:00pm Thursday 7th February 2008

Print

Email this

Comment