Archive for Bestowal

Is prostitution a human right in Europe?

9 September 2011 jonathanbishop No comments

Prostitution is they say the oldest profession so why are so many against it? Many feminists are disgusted by other women becoming prostitutes, but are they any better wanting abortions? If feminism means women have to right to control their body by aborting a child, surely others have the right to sell their body either for sex or for photographs for lads’ mags?

Based on my interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) alone I think that it is a human right to be a prostitute or receive services from one.

The ECHR says everyone has the right to marry and to found a family. As with all European Rights they have a right not to found a family or marry. Therefore it should be a right for those outside marriage to practice their right not to found a family with the help of a prostitute.

The ECHR says we have a right to privacy. Therefore if the state interferes in our right to receive sexual services then it is infringing on our privacy, including the privacy of our home if we have call outs.

The ECHR says we have a right to associate with those we choose and to have freedom of thought conscience and religion. So if the state does not allow us to associate with prostitutes for which activity with them is on our conscience then they are denying us our human rights.

So now turning to the rights of the prostitute. Under the ECHR it is a right not to be forced or compelled to perform any particular form of labour such as forced prostitution. Therefore prostitutes have a right not to provide services. Also they have the right not to take part in inhuman or degrading treatment, which forced prostitution would be.

There is a human right not to be deprived of ones’ property. So by not allowing prostitutes to ‘live off earnings from prostitution’ then some states who prescribe this may be denying prostitutes their human rights.

 

 

Bestowal, Economic, Law, Socio-legal

Using National Insurance and the Student Loans System to Reduce Crime and Burdens on Employers while protecting Employees, the Self Employed, Agency Workers and Victims

8 September 2011 jonathanbishop No comments

When the Coalition came in the promised no more red tape for small business owners and the self-employed of which I’m both. Then the Agency Workers Directive came in and then rather than do what the French do, which is to ‘translate’ the directive to be compatible with their ‘civil code’, which in our case would be ‘common law president’ they basically just did everything it said the way it said it. Every EU Government has the power to use ‘proportionality’ to interpret laws and the French make the biggest use of this. This basically says that any government can interpret an EU directive on the basis of what it was intended to do on no on the technical detail with which it is written.

As someone who holds a Masters in the Economics of Information Systems it is my golden rule that one should never introduce a new information system, such as a way of collecting tax, without first exhausting possibilities of expanding the use of existing information systems.

The information systems I’d like to expand are National Insurance, to reduce burden on small businesses who engage agency workers or self-employed subcontractors as well as traditional employees, and the student loan system, to replace welfare benefits and collect fines and other orders to pay money more efficiently to disincentivise crime.

I would like Employee National Insurance to be optional, with the exception of a ‘basic element’ to cover holiday pay, A&E, and other essential services. I’d like Employers NI contributions to be abolished. With this optional NI, employees would be able to subscribe to any number of social insurances that central government would provide, or not do so and take out private or people insurance with other providers such as private insurers or mutual health trusts. The social insurances NI could be used to fund are:

  •  Public health insurance (i.e. the NHS hospitals and primary care and sight tests, all prescriptions)
  • Public parental leave insurance (to replace SMP, SPP)
  • Public incapacity insurance (to replace SSP, IB, ESA)
  • Public payment protection insurance (to replace Mortgage interest relief, Job Seekers Allowance, and other costs that arise due to redundancy, etc.)
  • Public emergency relief insurance (to protect people in areas at risk of flood or victims of Acts of God that private insurance companies won’t fund, such as those in my ward of Treforest living near the River Taff).

There could be many other schemes that could be introduced, such as to provide low cost energy to vulnerable groups like pensioners or disabled. The actual payment out of these insurances could be done using the new information systems the UK Government is creating for ‘Personal Independent Payment’ to replace Disability Living Allowance. All it would mean is adding a few more categories to include non-disability related elements, such as pregnancy, maternity and paternity.

I’d like NI to be paid by and the insurances paid out to any UK citizen of working age wherever in the EU they are whether they are in work as an employee, self-employed or director, or whether they are out or work claiming welfare or in education receiving a student loan or grant.

People out of work or whose income falls below a certain amount each month, instead of being entitled to the various welfare benefits should have to take out a maintenance loan, using the information systems for the student loan scheme. They would pay their National Insurance out of this loan. All the people out of work on say incapacity benefit or ESA would have to take out this loan and each year, and like I as a student see, they will get a statement every year showing how much they were paid out and the amount of interest they are paying on it. It might be that a ‘carrot and stick approach’ could be used where those who do any work, even just a couple of hours, wouldn’t have to pay the interest. Like students they wouldn’t have to pay the loan back until their income was over 21,000GBP.

People trained in economics and IT, and who like me have been through the whole benefits and tax system, from claiming income support, incapacity benefit, housing benefit, disability living allowance, and tax credits, as well as the rest of the system paying Class 1 and 2 NI and income tax, paying dividend tax, filing VAT returns, PAYE statements, CIS statements, paying corporation tax and doing self-assessment as well as receiving student loans have a more intrinsic understanding of the system than may others who may only have been exposed to one part.

So I think great credence should be given to how I think the system could be improved with minimum cost in terms of new information system, and how to overcome the following fears which I and others have had

  • The fear of coming off benefits and going back into work in case it doesn’t work out
  • The fear of losing essential benefits like free sight-tests and prescriptions due to increased income
  • The fear of making a wrong calculation on PAYE, VAT, CIS and the 2000GBP fine that could follow
  • The fear of being fined due to errors or omissions on the complex self-assessment system
  • The fear of not being able to pay for life’s essentials due to loss of employment or being forced of benefits
  • The fear that because I have a good day where my disabilities aren’t as bad as usual that the government will use it as evidence to take all my support away

The maintenance loan could also be used as a supply side policy to get rid of rogues like loan sharks and payday loan providers. Employees who can’t afford a new washing machine or need money to pay for essentials like food should be able to use this extension of the student loan system to fund it safely then pay it back through the payroll like they would a student loan.

This maintenance loan system in place of benefits could also be used to collect fines for parking tickets, fixed penalty notices, County Court Judgments, child support and compensation payments. If someone’s maintenance loan was reduced or the ‘student loan’ component of their wages went up when the person was issued such an order then they may see the consequences of their actions more clearly and act more appropriately in future.

Bestowal, Boundlessness, Consideration, Economic, Information Technology, The Official Weblog of Jonathan Bishop

Ideas for tax reform

12 February 2011 jonathanbishop One comment

Following consultation with Government Ministers and others, the opinions expressed in the article below have where appropriate been replaced by those in this article.

There are many people in poverty today, not able to enjoy the lifestyle promised to them by proponents of capitalism and socialism. This is partly because the wealthy media barons give the poor pride in being working class so they don’t mind being suppressed by the upper and ruling classes. While people are still working class they will keep voting for parties that represent the working class, and while there are still people with more wealth than they need they will still vote for parties that promise to preserve their unnecessary wealth.

In whatever school we went to we were told about the Battle of Hastings 1066 in which the Normans carved up the indigenous Brits’ land among themselves. This wealth is now primarily in the hands of the 3,000 wealthiest estates in the country. If the European Convention on Human Rights had been in force then – this wouldn’t have been allowed to happen.

If I could stop the government, media and corporations suppressing people I would, and maybe I can by telling you this:
The Supreme Court has the power to introduce retrospective legislation. As the Human Rights Act is based on centuries old civil rights we once had, then maybe the Court could force every one of the 3,000 estates to give up the wealth they took from the people and which they haven’t yet given back, which can be used to provide free education and healthcare from cradle to birth for the next generation, who with their new skills and aspirations can forge a society in which power, wealth and opportunity is in the hands of the many and not the few as present?

The problem with the current tax system is that the rich are able to avoid paying it but the poor can’t. People are afraid to work hard and earn more because they don’t want or pay tax – my Freeman of Llantrisant ancestors didn’t want to either – what’s different about today? This is what I’d do:

1. Harmonise income tax to 20% for everyone for the UK Exchequer. We are not at war anymore; we are in the longest period of peace in Europe ever thanks to the European Union. So called ‘progressive’ income tax discourages hard work and social mobility. Also wealthy businessmen avoid it by paying their wives a salary so they don’t pay the higher rate of tax. I’d give the Welsh Assembly, Scottish Parliament, and Northern Ireland Assembly the ability to vary income tax to offset the effects of a single interest rate set by the central bank and to borrow money should the local macro-economy need adjusting.

2. Introduce a ‘surplus tax’ so that if people with excessive income from salary or dividends don’t spend or invest it in the economy by the end of the tax year then the Exchequer can take a proportion of it from them.

3. Scrap VAT and Council tax, which are regressive and negatively impact on the micro-economy. Introduce a progressive sales tax which means people who buy a £125,000 car pay more tax than someone who buys a £5,000 car. This would control wages, prices and inflation.

4. Keep corporation tax, but those firms who increase their turnover should pay less tax in order to encourage growth. Those for-profit firms who give to philanthropic not-for-profit firms such charities and co-operatives, receive tax breaks, and those not-for-profit firms whose turnover is increased from taking on the provision of public services or public procurement, should be given tax credits to encourage them to grow as a ‘people service’.

5. Tax on dividends is currently 10%, and business owners try to avoid income tax by paying themselves in dividends instead of wages. To stop this tax avoidance I would increase dividend tax to 20% (same as income tax) when it is paid to individuals, but cut it out completely when it is paid into ISAs or pensions. This would mean small business owners would pay themselves through PAYE to only pay 20% rather than the theoretical 40% they could pay in total with dividend tax and corporation tax.

6. Introduce a tax on share-dealing to discourage speculation and encourage more long-term investments.

7. Close the loophole where company directors can put huge amounts of money into pensions to avoid corporation and income tax. There should be a cap on how much money a company can put into employee/director’s pension. National Insurance should be replaced with a compulsory pension scheme which even those on benefits pay. People should have the choice over which provider to put it in, and should be easily able to change providers like they can with ISAs.

8. Not sure about the Barnett formula – maybe we could have a closer relationship with the EU than the UK Exchequer?

Bestowal, Boundlessness, Economic, Socio-legal, The Official Weblog of Jonathan Bishop, Uncategorized
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