Archive for November 11th, 2008

Being uncharitable

Grandad November 11th, 2008

Charities do a wonderful job, in the main. 

I like to think that I do my little bit for various organisations, so my conscience is clear.

HOWEVER……..

I do get a little pissed off when a reputable charity spams me.

I received a mail from Signal Communications via Pragmatica asking me to support Childline.

Childline are a wonderful charity, and they do great work.  I know a lot about them, because from the age of four, our K8 used to ring them several times a week for some reason.

On the other hand, I don’t know anything about Signal Communications or Pragmatica, and nor do I want to. 

They were obviously engaged by Childline to do promotion.

I have three searing objections to this mail.

Firstly, they wrote to an address that I rarely use, though it is commonly used by spammers.  I have never heard of them before, so this is an unsolicited mail [i.e. SPAM].

My second objection is that at the bottom of their mail they urge me to “Forward This Mail: To as many of your contacts as possible”.  This is again promoting unwanted mail.

My final, but no means least objection is that I have received more than one of these mails to the same email address from the same company.

My message to Signal Communications and Pragmatica: Fuck off, and stop spamming.  It is illegal.

My message to Childline: Please be very careful who you ask to do your promotions.  [And by the way, you should grammar check you front page!]

Taxing times

Grandad November 11th, 2008

Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow.

That is an old adage that I have lived by for years and it has stood me in good stead.

One of the things I have been putting off for as long as possible is my income tax returns.

However….  the tax people have a nasty habit of jumping down my neck if I don’t submit on time.

Last weekend, I settled down and worked out all my incomings and outgoings.  I added in my liabilities [Herself was top of the list] and my assets [GSOH?].  They wanted to know about my offshore accounts, but they can fuck off.  Do they think I’m stupid.

At the end of the day, I fed all my figures into the computer and pressed the button.

It whirred away for a moment and then coughed up the final amount that I owe the tax people.

€3.

This worried me.

I phoned my accountant, and he asked me to send him my figures.  He phoned me a short while later and said that my tax liability was, in fact €3.

Our Glorious Leader Biffo has been going on at length about how we are in the worst financial crisis for hundreds of years.  How he knows, I don’t know, as I doubt he has been around that long?  He must be serious though, as he appealed to our patriotism, and told us it was our duty to support our country.

Of course the Old Age Pensioners rallied and forewent their medical cards and the children decided they would accept larger class sizes.  All the twelve year old girls are going to run the risk of cervical cancer, and all in the name of patriotism.

I felt bad about my measly contribution to the coffers.  The government have a lot of important things to spend money on, like employing their families as advisors, or taking trips as far as possible on St Patrick’s day.  I felt that I was a traitor to the cause.  I felt bad.  I felt I had to make a contribution.

I sent ‘em a tenner.