An open letter to the son of the Manse (Update)

In August, I wrote an open letter to the PM about a message I felt at the time. All in all, I have been very impressed with the way the PM has conducted the affairs of the state from those dark months when everyone attempted to vilify him. It is no doubt that the political rewards are apparent.

My attention now draws to the issue of how to help people during these hard times and one particular issue has come into sharp focus: The VAT issue! The reduction in VAT from 17.5% to 15% will have minimum effect on the spending behaviour of consumers. I rather like the proposal by Mr Cameron to differ VAT payment for small and medium businesses for up to 6 months. If we discard politicking, then this will have significant benefits to small businesses and jobs, who are after all suffering the aftermath of the excesses of the Banks. I suspect the PM is aware of this in any case.

A stroke of genius

As we move into the new year and the recession starts to bite even harder, it will be a stroke of genius if the PM and his Chancellor introduces this VAT deferral scheme. The scheme might work like this:

1. Small and Medium companies have their VAT differed for 6 months
2. At the end of the 6 months, if the VAT are not paid, then interest is charged at the Bank of England lending rates.

The benefits of this scheme will be these:

• Small companies will have to spend money (which will stimulate the economy) to take full advantage.
• Government will be lending money to small business through the 'backdoor' at a time when the Banks are busy building up their reserves and are less willing to support small businesses with cash.

I suspect that this is not news to the PM. I wonder if the plan is to try the VAT reduction route first (17.5% to 15%) to stimulate consumer spending, then go down the VAT deferral route to inject some capital to small businesses. By so doing, the PM and his Chancellor would have lessened the cost of the VAT deferral scheme by 2.5%! Maybe we can start putting that saving towards the repayment of the huge debt that Great Britain PLC will be saddled with over the next couple of years of hopefully not so deep recession.

eBay Adventure!

My last instalment on my eBay adventure is coming to 2 years in January 2009! Guess what? I have not gotten as far as setting up an account! A lot has happened in the last 2 years that has resulted in putting this to the back of my list of priorities. Maybe one day, I will get round to it.

For now, it is noBay not eBay...

Chronic Psychosis?!

I woke up today with the above word playing in my head. MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia defines psychosis as "a loss of contact with reality, usually including false ideas about what is taking place or who one is (delusions) and seeing or hearing things that aren't there (hallucinations)".

What determines that reality to which a 'Psychotic' patient has lost contact? One may look to the immediate family. If the immediate family is dissatisfied with the current state of affairs and believes that the patient has an unrealistic or false sense of the reality, then the patient may be perceived as psychotic. The question then is how 'real' is the immediate family's reality? We hit an impasse.

If I were to broaden this, it will appear that society may offer a way out - Democracy. If we were to cast a vote on the state of mind of the patient, then a majority vote in favour of the patient's psychosis will be proof...or will it? In corporate parlance, a two-third majority in favour may be a better proof of the patient's psychosis. History however tells us that democratic majority have been wrong. It however, remains a weapon in our armoury of testing how 'real' is reality.

Some Psychotic episodes can more readily be diagnosed. For example if someone was going about breaking the natural laws of the land especially those laws that espouses right to life, right to dignity and capacity of humans to understand the difference between good and evil.

If we discount those easy to diagnose cases of psychosis and concentrate on someone who feels a 'divine' calling. Someone who has identified his purpose for being on earth and wish to achieve that purpose. He may hurt or upset his loved ones, he may alienate a vast sway of people but he perceives this to be his destiny. This destiny conforms with and re-enforces a great chunk of the natural laws. Shall we tag on him a label of Chronic Psychosis simply because we don't understand him?

That is a question for society but I am sure if a loss of contact with reality is the only measure of psychosis, then we have a lot of Chronic Psychosis patients out there: this writer included!