More rising council taxes (though not if Labour need your vote)

The average council tax bill is set to rise another 3.8% this year - an incredible 90% increase since Labour came to power! And surprise, surprise - the lowest rises are in the 238 districts that face elections in May, weeks before Gordon Brown is expected to take over as Prime Minister. The government is doing its usual trick of going easier on the key voters in the run up to an important election; however it will probably deal them the sucker punch next year to make up for the short fall. It stinks.

The hardest hit are the pensioners, who will face massive increases which will come straight out of their pensions - Gordon's other favourite trick: to give with one hand and then take it all back with the other. And what are we getting for this 90% increase? Considering we will probably be charged extra to have our rubbish removed in the coming months (another example of raising money with the old environment debate as a smoke screen) not a lot. We do have to pay £9bn for that £3bn Olympics we "won", I suppose. Expect to see many pensioners stand up to this in the coming months and be criminalised by the government - there are 90 in Devon alone, apparently, who are willing to go to prison over this. I guess that will mean our council taxes will have to rise further to pay the police and courts then... not that there are any spaces left in our prisons to put them.