How to tell if Gordon Brown is putting up taxes?

His lips are moving.

There should be some new signs at ports of entry to the UK. These could simply be "Welcome to Tesco Land" and "Give us all your money"

Despite an apparently booming economy you're pretty much stuffed in England unless you work for the government, big co, are a builder or don't work at all. If you have an ordinary job, or are retired (and weren't a state employee)the bit of money you have got left after paying all the bills is on a drastic diet only supported by immense debt and the false illusion of security if you have owned your house for a few years.

And it's not going to get any better.

Dear old Gordy has stoked up the bonfire of state wages and pensions to the point that it would take the bubonic plague to extinguish it. Or I suppose we could conscript civil servants and send them to the Middle East....

If you dare, just jot down the amount of money you have to find every month to pay the bills you don't have any realistic choice about. Notice how the standing charges are so high that even if you never use the phone you still have to hand over a large wodge. Got a TV, give us some more money. Live somewhere? Pay your Council Tax. What, you expect us to actually empty your bin? Got a car? Boy are you in trouble.

NHS? Want a dentist? Not a chance. But we do have the highest paid doctors in Europe. Just don't expect to see them after dark and be prepared to camp out on the telephone line at 0830 to get an appointment.

Sadly Gordon's bill will need to be paid, but it won't be by him. As with every preceeding Labour goverment we will have years of penury paying off the debt and then just when things are looking Ok again the idiot voters will put labour back in power again.