Death and taxes. The two things that we all know are guaranteed in life; and there seems to be a growing feeling that there is not much that governments would not slap a tax on.
The Chancellor has set the date for her next budget - 26th November - almost as late as she possibly could. Undoubtedly Rachel Reeves has plenty of challenges ahead, many of her own creation, and she will need every day between now and then to try to balance the books.
The headline debate is always of course about how much tax we pay. I would certainly be in the “we pay too much camp”. As a Conservative I believe in a strong, effective, but small state. Recognising that individuals, families, businesses and communities have the ability to get on with doing most of the things that we want in society. That the solution to every problem is not necessarily more government.
In my opinion Thames Valley Police misjudged the handling of a complaint regarding a Facebook comment made in March of this year.
From my understanding the comments appear to be rude, ill-judged, unpleasant and offensive – but thankfully being rude and causing offence is not a crime.
Spiking - giving someone drink or drugs without their consent - is an awful crime. In the worst cases we know that it can kill, and sadly it is a tactic we know some criminals will use to rape or sexually assault their victims.
There is a BIG problem with the new law the Government is trying to pass to deal with this. A problem that could mean that some people could get away with it.
I made tackling rural crime a priority when I was elected, and now Thames Valley has an outstanding Rural Crime Taskforce, which has conducted hundreds of investigations and provided invaluable crime prevention advice to rural residents. This concerted effort is clearly having an impact, leading to the downward trend in rural crime trend we are now witnessing thanks to our funding and our commitment to support farmers.
