As the chancellor takes an axe to public services,he boasts about cutting out waste. In fact, much of the money is being recouped through stealthy unique service feesThe mighty pickpocket of 20th-century imagination operated from the Inland Revenue. It hardly mattered whether it was Taxman Mr Wilson or Taxman Mr Heath. George Harrison sang about the avarice of both, and adding “my advice to those who die/is count the pennies on your eyes”.
A different demon stalks 21st-century deathbeds – Axman Mr Osborne. He too makes dying more expensive,but in very different ways. Although the chancellor is trimming inheritance tax, his cutbacks for local councils have already pushed average bills for public crematoriums up by a third since 2010. This singularly unavoidable charge illustrates a wider drift away from public funding for public services, and towards pay-as-you-recede government.
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Source: theguardian.com