Arguably, the greatest contribution to society of a liberal education is perspective. 'Dah da dah da dah. DISCUSS' was the way it went when I was at school, as opposed to the 'A, B, C, D, E. Tick one' of the modern era. Today, July 14, is only significant to the vast majority of the…
Who said tax is boring?
I was at dinner with friends late last year when one of the female guests announced that her husband was taking her skiing 'for her special birthday'. My in-built accountant's abacus went into immediate action calculating the lady's possible age. This took into account the ages of her children, her looks, and the milestones of her…
Celebrity Squares
Adolf Hitler is, for me, ancient history, while Churchill is almost pinchable. Why the distinction regarding two implacable foes, the height of whose infamy and fame coincided exactly? It is simply because, by the time I was born, Hitler had been dead for over a decade, while I remember Churchill's funeral, 50 years ago next…
Christmas Cheer
The spirit of Christmas Present materialized in the wake of the sensational success of 'A Christmas Carol'. Britain which, despite French whinging, was - in 1843 - the world's superdooperpower, had been struggling with Christmas traditions and what-not for years. Dickens's simple short story of a tyrannical, lonely employer mirrored against his put-upon employee (the latter having a loving,…
The Gentle Tax
There was a time when the mere mention of the name Germaine Greer - pioneering feminist author of 'The Female Eunuch' - made grown men (and only grown men) adopt the Direct-free-kick-defensive-wall position favoured by all modern footballers. I had no such reaction when, the other day, I turned on my car radio and was sucked…
The Good Old Days?
By the time you get to my age (I, just about, remember what I was doing when I heard JFK had been shot), there are not many childhood ambitions you have either not fulfilled or not given up on. I made it to the Volvo, but not President of the United States (an early disappointment reading…
The Tax Business
If proof were needed that the Silly Season is upon us, it turned up in our mail box a few days ago. Slowly ripping open the envelope housing last week's Economist, I noticed an 'x' peeping out at me from the partially-revealed cover. Excited by the prospect of 'tax' finally having hit the headlines of the world's…
Down Wiv Skool
I was chatting the other night with my middle son when he came out with the word "procrastinate". He also knew what it meant - not bad for a young man neither born nor bred in an English-speaking country. While 'procrastinate' is not as complicated as 'antidisestablishmentarianism,' the word does have as many syllables as that old spelling bee…
Deading The Fat Man
Moral Dilemma - two words that do not feature prominently , jointly or severally, in the tax advisor's lexicon. In the first half of the 20th Century when world wars were all the rage, moral dilemmas evolved from the gritty reality of combat. By the late sixties serious debate was banished to the periphery of existence…
Two deaths and a funeral
Last week news of two deaths brought sadness to members of my family. My lawyer son was devastated by the premature demise of Adrian Mole aged only 47 1/52, cut down in his prime when his greatest years of mediocrity and failure lay before him. As Mr Mole was nearly 10 years younger than me I…
Tax Break 