Bedmonds

I’m set to pay thousands more in income tax, hundreds more in council tax, unable to move due to stamp duty and be penalised for pension payments. All the while those who are on benefits and WASPI women will get more money. Is this, seriously, what our MPs are focussing on?

I sit in Parliament listening to these ministers, and it’s all just so depressing - the vast majority of them have never run a business, and it SHOWS. You would not believe how bad it is. They think ‘work’ means turning up to an office between 9 and 5, answering a few emails, and going home at the end of the day. Nice lunch break, few coffees away from the desk, probably a smoking break or several. It doesn’t - not for the millions of men and women who actually create the wealth that funds the state. Running a small business isn’t a job. It’s a way of life. It is life. It’s 24/7/365. It’s relentless. You are the accountant, HR department, compliance officer, cleaner, marketer, and customer service team - all in one. There’s no sick pay, no safety net, and no taxpayer-funded pension waiting for you. Holiday? Good luck. If you do manage to get away, it’s checking the phone all day, every day. Wife/husband obviously getting pissed off. We’ve all been there... It’s all on you. Every invoice chased, every tax deadline met, every bit of red tape navigated is on you. And if you make one mistake, one error, one small slip-up, the state comes after you - in a relentlessly efficient manner that is never afforded to us when we ask questions of it. Most MPs have no idea what that feels like. They just don’t. We’re going to see more of this in the budget I’m sure. More hurt. More pain. More tax. They don’t get it. They don’t understand that when a small business owner gets hit with another tax, it’s not absorbed by a ‘budget’ - it’s taken straight out of their family’s pocket. There is no ‘deficit’ in the business world - that’s called going bust. And they certainly don’t understand what real risk looks like. Politicians can vote through a policy on Monday and forget it by Tuesday - a small business owner lives with the consequences of that policy for years, decades. The MP monthly salary is safe. It always has been. In the public sector before, and in the public sector after - if not that, some charity/NGO funded entirely by the public sector. GET A REAL JOB. If MPs actually spent a week running a small firm - paying suppliers, tackling VAT, navigating health and safety law, sorting out HR issues, chasing clients for payment, trying to expand while staying compliant with everything from GDPR to local planning regulations - they’d legislate very differently. I can promise you that. They’d realise that most of Britain’s problems could be solved by the state doing less, not more. Cutting tax. Simplifying regulation. Slashing back the HRification of the country. Trusting people who actually produce things to get on with it. Instead, we have a political class that talks endlessly about ‘growth’ while brutally punishing the only people capable of delivering it - especially going after the family businesses/farms, which is a particularly spiteful policy decision. Small business owners are people who work harder than almost anyone in Parliament could imagine - and who are treated worse for it. Britain’s small businesses don’t succeed because of politicians, they survive in spite of them.

Everyone shouts “Tax the Rich”… but look at the facts. A £150k earner pays £53,460 in tax. A £25k earner pays £2,486. It takes 21 people on £25k to contribute what one person on £150k does. So why drive high earners out of the UK when they already shoulder far more of the burden? The problem isn’t how much tax is collected. The problem is how much the government wastes. Stop blaming the rich. Start holding the government to account.

@horseart1 Jonbon 🤞🏻

BANK HOLIDAY GIVEAWAY To have a chance to win one of my new limited edition prints, simply like this post, repost and comment with your choice Jonbon or State Man. Results drawn on Tuesday

@edie_raffy @SW_Help Not fit for purpose.

@SW_Help @Ben_Edmonds5 Why not? For gods sake

@SW_Help can customers order their own taxis tonight? Clearly nothing is leaving Waterloo at any platform and trains are not in the right places for alternative routes

@SW_Help Nice one guys. Guess I'll wait 1h30 mins for a single overcrowded train. Great service as usual, glad it cost me £70 for this 👍🏻

@Ben_Edmonds5 Hi, no sorry taxis are not being refunded. ^DM

@SW_Help This is from Reading, not Paddington^

@SW_Help Not sure I'd consider this moving. The train from Paddington to Basingstoke gets to Basingstoke at 21:48. A 90 min wait is quite clearly not a reasonable ask for customers. Are taxis still not being refunded?

@SW_Help I asked for after 9:30 as nothing is leaving Waterloo currently so I'm not sure how trains will get to Basingstoke if I miss the potential only one running tonight. But as no taxis are authorised suppose it's a wait and see. Nice one

@Ben_Edmonds5 Hi, yes there will be a train at 21:07. ^DM

@SW_Help Ha. Trying to get to Andover and have gone via Paddington then Basingstoke. Is anything expecting to run from Bstoke (after 9:30) as Trainline is suggesting otherwise

@Ben_Edmonds5 Unfortunately we don't currently have taxi claim-backs available. May I ask where you're travelling to? ^CW

@jaackthomson Up the Pitbull watching blues

@Ben_Edmonds5 You scream Chelsea

My hero

@loveintopain The 👑 been a fan since day one

@Ben_Edmonds5 GOAT

How fucking good is pitbull though

BOB OLINGER GOES 3/3 What a day for Rachael Blackmore who now wins the Paddy Power Stayers' Hurdle with Bob Olinger 👏 #ITVRacing | #CheltenhamFestival | @rachaelblackmor | @HenrydeBromhead

@elliepotter_ @SW_Help @SW_Help. Does the aircon automatically stop working when temperatures get hot

@elliepotter_ @SW_Help Exact same on the 17:53 from Waterloo yesterday. Aircon off and pretty sure the heating was ON. Not only is it uncomfortable, it’s genuinely dangerous for people travelling

@HaydnCummins49 Just love my country 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

@Ben_Edmonds5 Someone had a drink last night

#NewProfilePic #ColdPalmer