Pastygate U Turn

Loyal readers will recall the pastygate affair, when Osborne put VAT on pasties.

Following a complete drubbing by the media and the electorate, the government has now changed definition of hot food.

Food such as sausage rolls or pasties sold on shelves - that is, cooling down, rather than being kept hot in a special cabinet - will not be liable for VAT. The definition of a "hot" pasty is being altered to allow the reversal.

In other words the government has performed a spectacular and humiliating U turn.

Unsurprisingly shares in Greggs have risen by 9%.

Cheap Pasties

Want to know where you can buy a subsidised pasty?

Dine in the Houses of Parliament.

An extra large minced beef and onion pasty, served with beans, was on the menu last Friday for £2.95.

Unfortunately, unless you are an MP or guest of an MP, you will have to pay around £4.99 for yours!

Diversions

The government, having caused a petrol shortage by encouraging panic buying, is now telling everyone that they no longer need to stock up on petrol.

Why did they create this fuss in the first place?

Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin has the answer:

"My feeling is this was to try to take people's minds off donors, the Budget and pasties - and the Government added to the heat on this.

But really there should not have been any move to encourage people to buy more than they normally buy without consulting the industry first. I think that was the mistake."

When policies fail, politicians seek diversions!

Tory Tax Avoidance Hypocrisy

Last week in his Budget statement, George Osborne said:

“I regard tax avoidance and, indeed, aggressive tax avoidance as incredibly repugnant.”

For good measure he added that the Government would come down “like a ton of bricks” on those who seek to avoid stamp duty.

Step forward Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, who invested funds in DV3 Ltd a network of privately owned firms which is now at the centre of a tax avoidance case.

One of the subsidiaries of DV3 Ltd purchased the lease on the Dickins & Jones department store building in central London in October 2006 for £65.1M.

A month later, the subsidiary sold the lease to a partnership, also controlled by DV3, for £65,100. The company maintained stamp duty was calculated on the lesser amount, reducing the rate from 4% to zero.

HMRC challenged the transaction alleging it was a case of “aggressive tax avoidance” but lost at a tax tribunal in February 2011.

It is appealing the decision.

Taxes are, after all, only for "little people" and pasty eaters!

The Mystery of Cameron's Pasty

David Cameron claims that he recently had a pasty from the West Cornwall Pasty store at Leeds station.

Yet, the media reports that the West Cornwall Pasty store at Leeds station closed 31 March 2007.

Why do politicians try to create "street cred" by telling lies that are so easily exposed?

Pasty Panic Buying

Reports are coming in that queues are forming outside of bakeries the length and breadth of the UK, as people panic buy pasties; they will be using their jerry cans of petrol to warm them up up.

Cameron will be holding an emergency Cobra meeting to discuss the crisis.